It was getting late for us. October 25 and the weather looked right to run from Norwich to Portland, where we keep the boat in the winter. We usually leave a week or two earlier and now, with good weather predicted, off we went down the Thames River.
At this time of year, the marina looks a little sad with many boats gone. We have no complaints; we had six months of A-dock fun this year and we hope to repeat that again next year.
We had a nice trip back, except for that old, annoying starboard engine failure. It was less severe after all the changes we had made and we dealt with it, arriving at Portland Riverside at 4:30 pm.
The marina was full (except for a spot for us, thankfully) and there was a lot of nervous chatter about hurricane Sandy that, it appeared, might be coming our way.
During the next weekend, "Sandy" had matured into a full fledged Hurricane (later to be reclassified as a Tropical Storm) and the marina was full of activity. We arrived on Saturday morning and began the process of taking down our bridge enclosure (ugh!) and installing the bimini cover and the mooring cover, which he had never used. We had intended to winterize the engines but that took a back seat to making sure that the boat was a secure as it could be.
We brought down our little generator and started packing up our summer stuff in bags. Frances took pictures of the interior of the boat just in case we had to file and insurance claim later.
Once finished with all we could do, including extra lines and fenders, We were ready to leave and let old Act Three ride out the storm by herself. She certainly had a lot of neighbors.
Having never used the mooring cover before, we found it somewhat awkward getting off.
As we walked to car, we realized that we had done all we could do. Act Three will be better off tied to the dock.
And that turned out to be true. The winds on the upper Connecticut got to over 70 mph later that night but our old boat sustained no damage, save for one lost fender. The marina lost power due to a downed utility pole near the driveway but nothing else was damaged except for a few bimini tops that had not been removed.
This weekend (November 3-4) we winterized the engines and plumbing system. Once that was complete, we carried 13 bags of stuff home for the winter. Act Three will be out of the water in a week or two and then we'll begin our winter "To do" list.
We hope that everyone on A-dock and the many people we have met over the years on our boat were a lucky as we were.
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