As we stepped aboard Old Port Launch, the water taxi on Block Island’s New Harbor, to return to our boat, another passenger said, “We’re going to try to beat the storm home”. Storm? What storm? When I was out kayaking earlier, the ocean was calm and the sky was crystal clear. Even now, the warm sunshine was beating down on us, but looking to the north, we did see some clouds reaching up into the
sky.
The NOAA forecast had mentioned a 20 percent chance of showers this morning, but since nothing was showing on radar, we hadn’t worried about it.
Once back aboard Blue Moon, our Willard 40 trawler which was anchored out in the northwest corner of the harbor, my husband and I booted up our computers and pulled up Windy.com, our go-to weather website. Sure enough, up north on the mainland of Rhode Island, some storms were brewing. The marine forecast had posted a severe thunderstorm watch, but the radar showed the storms were still an hour or more out so we had time.
New Harbor, also known as the Great Salt Pond or “The Pond” on Block Island is a wonderful place for boaters. It is well protected from all directions, is over a mile across, has moorings for rent, has three marinas and a very large anchorage. There are shellfish beds on the north side with white “No Anchoring” buoys lining the edge of this large area. Across from the shellfish beds is the entrance channel with the old Coast Guard Station standing watch. Blue Moon was anchored near the shellfish beds not far from an imposing 100 foot army tug boat that is always anchored in The Pond.
As soon as we saw the storm on the radar, we started our storm preparations. The cushions on the fly bridge were stowed, the kayaks and dinghy lashed down, folding chairs on the aft deck were folded and stowed. And then we waited….
I was doing a jigsaw puzzle in the main salon which is lit by big windows all around. It got harder to discern the colors and shapes of the pieces as the skies darkened and the clouds rolled in. Then we heard the far off rumble of thunder. Flashes of lightning flickered off to the north and the first few drops of rain started hitting the decks as we watched the storm build. It didn’t seem so bad, not much wind but the ominous and continuous thunder intensified.
Visibility dropped as the rain turned into a wall of falling water followed by the clinking sound of hail hitting and ricocheting off the foredeck. The sailboats to port suddenly leaned over on their sides and turned abeam to the wind as a big wind gust hit them. The gust soon hit us and we started to feel the bucking of the boat as the 50 to 60 MPH gusts whipped up 3-4 foot breaking waves in the harbor. Spindrift, foam torn from the tops of the waves, went skidding across the water.
The boats started dragging their anchors. We had the VHF radio on and the engine ready to start in case we had to take evasive action. Whitecap, a 45 foot trawler off to starboard, turned abeam to the wind, a good indication that its anchor was not holding. My husband hailed them on 16 and warned them they were dragging. We held our breath as it slipped aft of us, praying it wouldn’t be blown into us. Thankfully, it stayed far enough away and cleared our stern. Then their anchor bit into the good gooey mud and with a sudden jerk, stopped the boat’s backward motion.
By now the VHF radio was alive with calls for help and warnings of boats dragging throughout the harbor. A catamaran “Cat Call” broke free and went flying by well away from us but possibly hitting another boat as they got their engines started and their anchor up.
To port of us were three sailboats and in one of the big wind gusts a 35-foot sloop started dragging down on us. It crept closer, then the anchor caught, but another gust hit the boat and it once again started to drag as it went into the deeper water where we were anchored. By some miracle, the sailboat went between us and the two other sailboats and didn’t touch any of us. The anchor finally reset and the boat came to a stop about a boat length away to our port side.
After what seemed like hours but was probably only 30 or 40 minutes, the wind abated. Calls for assistance were still coming in fast and furious. One poor woman was trying to get some assistance, first from the local towboat operator who was in the middle of assisting another boat, then from the Coast Guard. She was really losing her cool and kept telling the Coast Guard “We are in the Great Salt Pond next to the giant tug and we’re going to hit it! Our dinghy is caught under the boat!!” They probably tried to power into the wind/waves and forgot to shorten their dinghy painter which got caught in the prop and pulled their inflatable dinghy underneath their sailboat. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard dispatcher was nowhere near Block Island so they didn’t know what location she was referring to so they kept asking for a Lat/Long position. Finally the towboat finished its current rescue and came over to get the situation under control.
Looking ashore, we saw a bright white flash of light. At first we thought it was a lighthouse, but the only one toward town is the Southeast Lighthouse which has a green flash. Then there was another brilliant white flash and my husband said, “It must be a transformer blowing.”
On the radio someone was talking to a sailboat whose anchor caught and dragged a buoy as the wind pushed the boat off station. The visibility was clear enough now to see the boat in the middle of the shellfish beds with the white “No Anchoring” buoy far away from where it belonged.
For the next couple of hours we watched the red and orange flashing lights of the towboat and Marine Patrol de-tangling the mess in the harbor. We noticed that the 100-foot army tugboat with its 300 feet of very large chain had even dragged in the storm and was now clearly in the harbor channel.
Through all the mayhem, Blue Moon’s 60 lb Bruce anchor and 120 feet of 3/8ths chain held us steady. As the hubbub died down we reflected on the storm. In hindsight we thought of a few things we should have added to our preparations:
- Have some fenders ready to avert the worst damage if a boat dragged into us
- Have our foul weather gear out and ready in case we needed to go on deck. We are fortunate that our boat has an inside steering station so we stayed warm and dry.
- Have our PFD’s at the door in case something catastrophic were to happen
- Have our running lights turned on for better visibility
Stay safe out there and be vigilant because you never know when the weather might turn.
Donna Gambino lives aboard a trawler with her husband Jim Doyle in New England during the summer and Florida in the winter. Follow them on their YouTube channel: @LifeAt7Knots
