I have been watching the track of Hurricane Lee for the past week or so, and while it seems to be passing us by quite a wide margin, we’re still supposed to be getting some significant winds tomorrow. ORION’s mooring is in a pretty protected area, and while she probably would have been okay staying on her mooring, I didn’t want to tempt fate and have a repeat of the 2020 incident that nearly resulted in disaster.
Like I did in 2021 for Hurricane Henri, I called up Mago Point Marina next to the Niantic River launch ramp and asked if they had any room for ORION in their parking lot for the weekend. Fortunately, they did, so this morning my father met me at the launch ramp with the trailer and we hauled her out.
We drove the short distance to the marina where I was instructed to park ORION near an empty trailer by another large powerboat. Once there, we took a few extra minutes to wrap the jib with the spinnaker halyard, wrap the mainsail cover with a spare line so it couldn’t blow off, and bungee the main and spinnaker halyards to the shrouds so they wouldn’t slap the mast in the wind, but I think even those precautions were a little overkill. Nevertheless, I have peace of mind knowing she’ll be completely safe for the weekend no matter what happens. I plan to relaunch her Monday.