Still waiting for Irene

Irene is getting closer and we're waiting, along with 10 or so more sailboats at anchor in the cove with us.  Deciding to be a little more cautious, we decided to take the jib sail completely off the roller forestay, to reduce windage.  Not a hard job, just ...mmm...tedious.  And the sail is heavy.

Just as we got the monster thing laid out on the deck, along come the owners of the big, nice mooring that we had picked up the day before.  Not a problem to leave it, just bad timing.  So now we are at anchor, with a 150 ft length of 5/16 th inch chain and a 66 lb Bruce anchor, safely away from all other boats, and waiting.  When we got up this morning, it was foggy.  I thought it might be associated with the storm, but it lifted early.

However, the clouds associated with Irene began to fill the sky by late afternoon. The continued forecasts all indicate just a tropical storm instead of hurricane force winds here.  We are counting on that!  But still watching.  Rain is supposed to start tomorrow morning.  We'll just be glad when it's over.