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09/15/2005: "Hurricane Ophelia"

Well, hurricane Ophelia is almost a memory. She is moving very slow across the outer banks and off to sea. This slow movement is causing more problems because the winds will not let up. This is causing a lot of chafing problems on the boat lines and anchor rodes.

We didn’t have too much problem with the storm. We got out of town. The advantage of living in an RV is that inside of an hour we are ready to leave with everything we own. We decided to head to Clayton N.C., just outside of Raleigh. The simplest system we know is find a Wal-Mart and stay there. If you are traveling in a RV or camper you can stay overnight in a Wal-Mart parking lot without a problem. We headed out and stopped for the first night in New Bern. I was having some problems with the flashers and signals on the RV so I didn’t want to travel at night. We stopped at the Ford dealer in the morning but miraculously everything was working. We then headed off to Clayton.

The extent of the storm in Clayton was a few scattered showers and moderate winds. We were defiantly on the outer edge of the storm. We used the time to get some shopping done. We found a mount for the TV/monitor for when we move onto the boat and picked out and ordered the wall paper we will use for the headliner project. We looked for a book store but didn’t find one nearby.

Back at the marina the winds were blowing and the water was rising. When the wind blows long and hard from the northeast the water backs up into the creeks along the southern part of Pamlico Sound. Clubfoot Creek, where we are, is one of those. At high water it was about eight feet above the docks.

Thursday morning we headed back home, stopping at the marina to check on the boat. The water was still above the docks and the wind was still blowing but conditions were better then earlier. We could see the sand being stirred up by the waves at the mouth of the creek. We will probably have shoaling problems in the channel when this is all done. There was a lot of debris around the marina, as there was everywhere, but the clean up had already been started. We made a side trip to get a closer look at Hi Flite to double check she was riding ok. One of the people living on the creek told us he was worried she might let loose and kept a spotlight on her for a while until he was sure she would hold. He said she was moving around a lot and heeling over in the gusts.

We made the run down to the resort to set up the RV again seeing a lot of debris, branches and some downed trees along the way. A quick tour of the park showed some downed trees, many canopies torn and some skirting torn from under the campers. The water came up to the campers closest to the water but not into them.