hurricane earl

The Weather Channel put it best. In the course of their coverage, they showed a sign outside a restaurant on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It said Jim Cantore deserves an Emmy Award for his coverage of Tropical Storm Earl. The pleasant looking anchor woman thought it was a compliment of the channel’s coverage. She didn’t realize it was a full blown insult.

Maybe it was because of the 5 year anniversary since Katrina: the Hurricane that destroyed a city and showed just how piss poor our Governments response can be, when you have an uninformed President, and an inept, political patronage, appointment. “You’re doing a good job there Brownie”

This heavily hyped storm wasn’t a dud, but it was hardly epic, and it pretty much missed Long Island all together. It’s been a pretty good August. I’ve sailed the ocean a few times had some nice Nor Easters off Demo with Southern swell. And the temperature hasn’t been too hot. I can’t complain.

But the coverage of Earl had people canceling their Labor Day plans up and down the east coast. The amount of revenue that must have been lost…I could not even begin to guess.

Thursday we actually had some heavy wind. But it had nothing to do with Earl. It was your basic cold front. I wish I had gone windsurfing, but went out n Segue instead. I figured it was my last chance to take down my Genni, and check my mooring. I ended up sailing with a single reef in the main, and 70% jib. I would have been cruising on a 5.5 at least. But I’m glad I took the day off. I never did clean my gutters, or find a source for sand bags…but the power went out in my office. So I would have been frustrated beyond belief.

Friday I touched up some glasswork I have been doing on my surfboards all morning. I loaded my Smallest board in the Van, made sure I had a boom small enough for my 3.7, and headed to CIB. 15 guys spent 3 hours bullshitting and just talking. Something we rarely have time for, while we waited for the wind that never arrived.

Saturday. The brave hit Da Meadow early then headed to the ocean to break some gear.Dommer chronicled the action on Flicker. Me; I arrived at Da Meadow about 11:00, for the outgoing mid tide. I started with a 6.3 Ezzy, and my 110 ltr RRD and I stayed with it all afternoon. It was just exactly what I needed. But hardly a Hurricane, or even a small craft advisory.

Now it has been blowing ALL week since I’ve been back at work. And I’ve missed every day because I have to pay my mortgage, and I’m pretty sure the bank won’t accept the excuse that it was really windy all month. But I’m not sure. I’ve never actually tried that excuse.