Nasty Noel

When Noel was first named earlier in the week it was predicted that it would not influence the east coast in any significant way. We took a wait and see attitude anyway and held up in Hampton. Later in the week the winds were predicted to be northwest so we expected to have some wind protection from the buildings. Yesterday we took additional steps to secure our position and since our anchors were well set we opted not to move even though the winds were northeast which is parallel with the river where we are and therefore we were getting no protection from shore side structures. During the day several boats left the anchorage to seek shelter in the marinas. At the end of the day only five boats including Ariel remained in our immediate area. Further down the river were a few more boats, two of which we stay in touch with. The night before several in their area had dragged. For us the wind peaked at around 1:00 am. I didn't check the wind speed but it was up there, but just checked that we were staying put. We have a red channel marker buoy (22) less that a boat length usually just off our stern, This makes it real easy to check our position. In the morning we found that Ted and Alice on Windsong, a Whitby 42 out of Oxford, Maryland had obviously dragged as they were now anchored closer to us, but still downwind from our position. Noel had morphed into a Nor'easter as it passed here. Luckily it was just far enough offshore to lessen the impact to our position a little. The miss was by a mere 40 miles. It was a good learning experience and is helping us to gain confidence with anchoring.