Irene was Weathered at Sea by Mendham Woman

Editor's note: Mendham Township resident Betsie Cumming shared with Patch her dramatic photos and video of her experience weathering Hurricane Irene on her boat, the MANDATE. Cumming also shared her account of the storm in her own words below.

We own a lovely Tayana 58’ sailboat named MANDATE and planned a late summer cruise with some of our grandchildren before the opening of school in Aug. 2011.  We picked three of them up in Martha’s Vineyard and two more in Marion, Mass. Our plan was to take them for several days, allowing the parents to enjoy a romantic, couples only, weekend.

We were having a wonderful time – all the kids were enthusiastic and eager to participate in the sailing activities. We pay close attention to weather at all times in order to schedule our port visits and minimize discomfort. We enjoyed a boisterous but fun sail that day when we left Marion for ports farther south in Buzzard’s Bay.

On our second day out we learned that hurricane Irene’s probable path was predicted to interfere with our mini cruise – we had plenty of warning to make intelligent decisions regarding the children and our plan to move to a safe location. We called the parents and told them about the impending storm and agreed to deliver the kids to a yacht club located in Padanaram, Mass. – a convenient stop for one of the dads to gather up the five children. 

With them safely ashore and with the latest weather updates we made plans to leave for New Bedford/Fairhaven, Mass. The harbor master there assured us that they would have an appropriate mooring available for us and that the hurricane barrier would be lowered prior to the storm’s arrival to mitigate any fetch or surge within the harbor. The moorings there are basically “screwed” into the harbor bottom, a system that is considered to be safe and secure.  We arrived in the early afternoon on Saturday Aug. 27, with plenty of time to tie up and remove as much canvas as possible to reduce windage aboard. 

We added our longer bridle to the mooring with as much scope as we could to minimize the possibility of “lifting” the hardware at the bottom of the harbor.  With little more to do but wait, we rode into shore in our dinghy on Saturday night for what became our last meal for the next 36-hours. We found a great little restaurant and enjoyed cocktails and dinner before we returned to the boat to wait out the storm. As we usually do, we retired early hoping for a good night’s sleep.

The Storm Arrives

By 6 a.m. on Sunday the wind was gale force and the sea state in the harbor had started to build. We had a working cell phone that allowed us to track the looming storm.  By the time we had finished our coffee things began to deteriorate. 

There actually was not too much rain in New Bedford, but the wind and then the waves began to increase. By 7 a.m. the wind was up to 40-50mph and the waves were beginning to get larger.  Our 58’ sailboat weighs about 55,000 lbs, so it remained fairly stable while many of the smaller boats around us were beginning to look like hobby horses – not a good thing for them as the motion causes chafe and instability. 

Shortly after 7 a.m. there was a tremendous crash – a very large boat that had been moored in front of us had dragged her mooring and smashed into the bow and port side of MANDATE.  

The boat became entangled in our lines and bow pulpit threatening to take us along with her. We both put on our life jackets and never took them off for the next 24 hours. I grabbed a knife and crawled up the starboard (right) side of our boat on hands and knees until I reached the bow.  With my butcher knife I sawed through the line which was binding us together and watched the offending boat scrape down the port (left) side of our boat, wreaking havoc the entire way – badly damaging the gorgeous teak toe rail, the stainless steel stanchions, lifelines and anything it could snag. I crawled back to the cockpit, adrenalin pumping like crazy. Though it was not raining hard, I was wet through and through.  I went below to put on some dry clothes when another resounding crash occurred. 

When I came topside I saw that another very large sailboat was hung up on our port bow, this one had a very large bowsprit and huge anchor tangled in our bow pulpit.  She began to move down the port side (I guess it was good that only one side of MANDATE was so badly damaged).  This time the offending sailboat hung up near the stern of MANDATE, with her plow anchor caught on the genoa furling line and our stern pulpit.  This time the Captain grabbed the knife to free us. Adrenalin helped!

Unrelenting Conditions

It may seem questionable that we cut these two boats loose from us, but if either one of them had continued to drag us, we too would surely have been torn loose, only to create a huge hulk moving down through the rest of the fleet – probably more loss. By now the winds had picked up and at their peak we estimate they were in excess of 70mph. All of the larger boats ahead of us were now gone but the storm was unrelenting.  We watched for hours as other boats broke loose and washed down the harbor into the rocks, the highway bridge and docks beyond us, taking other boats along. 

Hurricanes typically last a few hours before the lull in the storm (the eye) arrives. Then there is calm before the rest of the storm passes. This process may be four or five hours, but Irene went on in New Bedford harbor for about 15 hours. We followed the storm on the cell phone. Even at 9 p.m. when the eye of the storm was well north and west of us near Burlington, VT.  we were still being pounded. Several times the winds let up allowing us to hope that the end was near, but quickly returned to near top speed. 

I ventured forward again by mid-morning and discovered that our mooring bridle was chafing badly. We gathered every piece of rope that we thought might be useful and proceeded to replace the worn lines.  Captain John started the engine and, in conjunction with our bow thruster, managed to get the bow near the mooring ball so that I could hang over the bow and thread new lines into the mooring eye. It took three or four attempts to get each line in place and secured to the cleats on deck.  The new set of lines that were used were in excellent condition – only a few months old.  However, this same exercise had to be repeated twice more during the day. Thankful that the engine and bow thruster behaved well, we nevertheless stayed on watch until midnight.  Having nothing to eat all day, we tried to have a meal, but the adrenalin was really enough.

Calm AFTER the Storm

More than 33 boats broke loose that day and many were a total loss, including one of the boats that hit us. The next morning couldn’t have been more beautiful – sparkling sky and bright sunshine, but with wrecks and havoc all around the harbor.  Sailors began to return to their boats to survey the damage – many came to us to make sure we were safe as we were the only ones who remained aboard during the storm.  Some came with thanks, realizing that our efforts to move aside the free boats may well have saved theirs.

We began to assess the damage and clean up and were surprised to find that the last lines that had been replaced on our mooring had actually melted in to a big blob that had to be cut off of the cleats. 

We were thankful to be safe and that we had a fabulous insurance carrier.  There was an adjuster in the harbor within hours of our call to prepare a report and examine those boats that damaged us while they were still in the area.  Our wonderful insurance company gave us permission to do anything necessary to assure that the boat was safe and seaworthy before we tried to deliver it to our homeport in preparation for repair.

MANDATE spent the entire winter in the Chesapeake Bay at a family owned and operated boatyard being repaired and repainted.  We were fortunate not to have damage to our rig (mast, boom, etc), but the final bill was substantial!  It is with certainty that I say had we not remained aboard there would be no MANDATE today. 

Would I do that again at age 67, I don’t think so!