24 September 2026 - Thursday - preparing for the Nor'Easter
Weather forecasts indicated a big storm would be headed our way by the end of the week. Clark decided that we needed to do some preparation work in advance.
We have windows on roof for two of our bedrooms. They let the light in nicely, but the one over the guest bedroom decided to start leaking a couple of years ago. Clark had climbed up there to put caulking in place and that helped for a while, but recently, he noticed dampness appearing in the bedroom once again.
He decided that he should redo the repair with butyl tape. Unfortunately, the huge ladder he uses to get up there requires both of us to move and position it. We hauled it out of the garage and around to the side of the house to set it up against the roof.
Once we had the ladder positioned, I gave him a bag to use to carry his tools and supplies up with him. I position myself at the bottom of the ladder though heaven only knows what I could do should the ladder start to topple. I mostly stand around at the bottom of the ladder getting a stiff neck looking up at him working!
The worst part of working with this ladder is moving it from one spot to another. We had to move it from the left side of the sunlight to the right. To make it even more of a challenge, Clark decided we could shift it over without lowering it first. As such it is an unruly piece of equipment that has a mind of its own. We managed to wiggle it over with only a few ooohs and aaahs at it teetered this way and that.
With the window sealing completed and the ladder back where it belonged in the garage, I thought I would be able to "chill" for a bit before going out to meet up with some classmates of Clark's for a Happy Hour gathering. Clark had other ideas. Knowing there was bad weather coming, he wanted to take Sunset Delight out for a maintenance while we had nice weather.
The Happy Hour gathering was in a town about 30 to 40 minutes away drive time. We knew if we took the boat out, we would be a late arrival but decided we could be "fashionably late" to the event. Clark said we did not need to go all the way to Sea Bright but could just go out as far as the main channel to get the job done. So, with that plan in mind, that is exactly what we did.
Clark complained as we motored along that the boat felt sluggish. Looking at the depth finder to see just over a foot of water under the keel gave some explanation as to why the boat might be "struggling" to go as fast as it usually would. Hopefully that is the explanation!
The Happy Hour event started at 4:00. Arriving at 4:30, we just happened to pull into the parking lot as another of Clark's classmates attending the event.
Unlike the one we went to in the spring, only 12 people came to this gathering. Several folks did not attend as they had other commitments.
Clark did not want to eat dinner there. I, on the other hand, decided to order a Yuengling and nachos. The beer was ice cold the way it should be! We were home by 7:00, and I pulled out a selection of leftovers from the fridge for Clark's dinner.
We like to watch movies together at night. Clark surfs through Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc looking for something that might catch our interest. He found one that sounded oddly interesting - "The Love Hypothesis". It is hard to find a movie that we both enjoy as our interests differ considerably. However, we both rated this movie in the "Love It" category.
25 September 2026 - Friday
When we returned from out boat run yesterday, I noticed a tree on our property line that was damaged. The Nor'Easter had not even arrived yet and already we had yard work to worry about!
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| Broken tree on property line |
The base of the tree is on our neighbor's property - so technically, their tree. However the broken part was hanging over our property. Clark decided to call our neighbor to find out how he wanted to deal with it. When we went out to work on it, it was his lunch time from work, so he joined us to tackle the project.
Instead of taking down the whole tree, they decided to lop off the broken part. Our neighbor brought over a sharp tree trimming tool that cut through the limbs of the tree like a knife through butter. The only tree trimming tool we had was probably older than Clark and covered in rust without the cutting tool that Clark was looking for - only a saw end.
We threw the cuttings from the damaged tree onto a tarp and dragged it up to add to the pile we started the other day. I was hoping that the town would send a truck through to pick up brush before the Nor'Easter hit, but that did not happen. I wondered if we got high winds if the brush would be scattered up and down the street. That did not happen either.
After our tree trimming exercise, we got ourselves cleaned up to go out to dinner with our friends - Joe and Diane. Clark and Joe met through guitar class. Besides having dinner together, Clark wanted to consult with Joe about an issue with his (Clark's) guitar. So, before going out to eat, Joe and Diane came to our house to discuss guitar repair. Afterwards we drove to a local restaurant, Nauvoo Grill, for dinner. It is conveniently located in Fair Haven less than 2 miles from our house.
We had a lovely time with Joe and Diane. Sadly, with us leaving on the boat shortly, we won't see them again for a while.
26 September 2026 - Saturday - Nor'Easter Arrives
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the temps were in the 70s. Today the temps had dropped in preparation for a change in the weather.
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| Time to put on a jacket! |
Our house is on a creek, and our boat is at the dock in the creek. I looked out the back to look at the creek. It was easy to see it was an extra, extra high tide this morning!
The water level had reached the bottom of the steps to the dock, the ramp was unreachable without waders or a swim, and the ramp was pointing almost straight up in the air and certainly unusable. Clark thought he should have carried the dinghy up onto dry land the night before, but it was too late now. BTW: we don't own waders.
We had to wait until the weather receded in the afternoon to gain access to our dock. When we had dock work done to accommodate Sunset Delight, Clark had extra tall poles put in place for our dock. We learned from Hurricane / Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 that we wanted poles tall enough that our dock would not come off the top as it did in "Sandy". In that storm, we were out in our backyard until 3:00 a.m. working hard to save our dock and our boat. We crawled into be shortly after 4:00 a.m. that night.
Some pictures from Superstorm Sandy as a reminder of how bad it can get ...
Our creek has changed some over the years. When Sandy was coming, Clark tied our boat out in the middle of the creek with lines connected to both sides of the creek. He tied our neighbor's boat to a cleat on our boat.
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Spider web of lines connecting Sea Moss
to shore with a neighbor's boat attached as well |
When the water came in at high tide, our boat was not reachable by means other than another boat!
So of course, Clark rowed out to our boat.
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| Note the angle of the ramp |
The water came up to the top of our retaining wall. Fortunately, that was no where near putting our house in danger.
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| Our backyard |
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| Looking down our creek near high tide |
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Looking the other way on our creek
(see the outline of our landscaping under water) |
We had a similar wind event in 2012 as we had for Nor'Easter 2026, but worse! The high tide from earlier in the day did not recede as the water was held in by the winds. When the second high tide came in that evening, the water had no where to go except up! The water came up high enough that the dock came off the top of the pilings holding the dock in place.
Clark and a friend, Mike, were out at the boat that entire night keeping our boat secure, working together to tighten and loosen lines as needed. Clark pulled out the Sea Moss fender boards (2 x 6 planks) to use to help guide the boat back over the poles for the dock when the water receded. I stood on shore with my neighbor watching the boat all night.
When we saw the water level drop down one stair on our walkway, I started yelling, "It's going down. It's going down." Clark and Mike got into position with the fender boards to direct the positioning of the dock over the poles.
When the water went down, it went down fast. When all was said and done, we were left with a neighbor's dock high and dry in our backyard and a lot of cleanup to be done.
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| What a mess! |
Our neighborhood was without power for 12 days as a result of "Sandy". We had power at our house once the waters receded because Clark fed power to our house (and a neighbor's) from the generator on our boat "
Sea Moss". Knowing the storm was coming, Clark went to Home Depot and bought a circuit breaker box to power our heat, hot water, fridge, and television, and a neighbor's fridge. We had television via "Over The Air" service that Clark insisted on using instead of cable tv. Sweet!
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Power enough to run the essentials
sitting on the floor in our den |
Back to current day ...
With the knowledge of what we encountered during "Sandy", we decided we better prepare for the worst with Nor'Easter 2026. Although we were comfortable with our dock arrangement, we had concerns for our neighbors whose poles are the same height now as they were for "Sandy".
We had our own little "Block Party" as our creek neighbor's came out to see what preparations could be made. We started with our immediate neighbor who called his son-in-law to come over and help take care of business.
Step 1: Move our neighbor's boat out of harms' way. Clark suggested that the best place to secure the boat was tied to our boat, so he tied up on our port side.
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| Garner moving his boat |
Step 2: protect our neighbor's docks; he has two
"We're gonna need a lot of line!"
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| Clark, Garner, and John |
Once the dock is unhitched from the posts, Clark will need a means of getting back to shore - thus the use of our "new" dinghy.
It took four of us working together to raise the ramp off the floating dock.
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| Ramp up; time to move the dock |
Once the ramp was up in the air, Garner tied the line to a tree. I just hoped the tree had good roots!
Then, Clark got busy taking off the rings that hold the docks next to the poles. I did not like that he was under that suspended ramp!
Once free of the poles, Clark and John moved the dock out into open space to allow it to rise and fall unconstrained as the water rose and receded. They had one line tied to a cleat on the bow of Sunset Delight and the other end connected to shore.
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Line running to shore from floating dock
(a different tree from above) |
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| Ramp up; Dock moved |
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Good thing they have a dinghy
to get back to shore!
|
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| First dock secured |
To address the care of the second, and older, dock, the guys put their heads together to come up with a game plan.
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| John, Clark, and Garner talking it over |
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| Surveying the situation |
Step #1, remove the canoe from the dock.
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| Garner carrying the canoe over his head |
After considerable analysis regarding dock disassembly, Garner came up with the idea to put something under the ramp to allow it to float should it become disconnected from the dock. Being old and made of wood did not support the idea of suspending it in the air like the metal ramp. Garner had an old tubing toy that he was willing, due to its condition, to "sacrifice" for the mission.
For the other neighbor, Jim, it was decided that they would put out an anchor (the spare anchor for Sunset Delight) to hold the dock, should it come off over the poles, so that it would not float away.
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Clark and Garner deploying the
very heavy anchor |
After deploying the anchor for Jim, Garner worked with John to install flotation under the ramp. Clark went to the Jim's dock to help him (Jim) decide what other preventative protection to put in place for his dock.
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New use for a tubing toy
John and Garner
|
Once the tube was in place, and Clark was done helping Jim, it was time to disconnect dock #2 from the poles so it was free floating. Clark tied lines to the poles and removed the metal rings that secured the dock to the poles. They left the dock with the ramp sitting on one end and the other end to float up and down without bein attached by the rings.
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| Storm-prep work completed! |
We knew all of this preparation work might be for no benefit if the water did not rise as much as to get higher than the dock pilings. However, having experienced the worst case scenario during "Sandy", we decided "better safe than sorry" was our motto. Jim fully believed that the water would rise no more this night than it did earlier in the day. Having dealt with "Sandy", Clark and I were less certain this would be the case. Only time would tell.
As we all worked on Jim and John's docks, we saw our neighbor on the other side of our house come out to deal with his dock. Garner had texted him and suggested he might want to do some prep work. He, Kerry, took in his US flag from the piling to prevent the dock from snagging on it and attached lines from the dock to shore hoping that would be sufficient preparation. His new-to-him boat was still tied to the dock. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen.
The weather while we worked was interesting. We heard reports of downpours in Holmdel, NJ resulting in an accumulation of 5" of rain or more on Saturday. In Rumson, we had varying degrees of moisture in the air ranging from nothing to a slight mist to a light rain. So while Holmdel had rain, we "only" had to deal with tidal flooding. Nevertheless, our clothes were damp, to say the least, by the time we called it quits for the day.
Clark and I had eaten breakfast before our day's work began, but we missed lunch due to our endeavors. When we got back in the house, I pulled out some food and we had an early dinner. Earlier, as John and I stood on the shore watching Clark and Garner busy with some task or another, we commented to each other that living on the water brought its own form of excitement and adventure. It's not boring! What a day we had!
27 September 2026 - the high-water threat is over
Clark brought the portable spot light into the house from the boat so he could keep an eye on the docks during the night last night. He checked several times but all looked well.
Ultimately, the worst case scenario did not happen. The water did not rise so high as to put the docks in jeopardy of coming off the poles. One might think it was all for naught, but it was far better to be over prepared than regretful. Today's job was to put everything back the way it is supposed to be.
For today's activities, Garner was unavailable; however, Jim (the neighbor next to our immediate neighbor) was out there working with Clark and John to reassemble the docks. (I was on a winning streak playing "Mahjongg With Friends" and took a while longer to run outside to join the "fun".)
The dinghy had to be redeployed as Clark and John had brought it up on dry land to be available in an emergency during the evening / night. Once the dinghy was in the water, Clark, John, and Jim could begin work.
Jim went with Clark in the dinghy to retrieve the anchor holding Jim's dock from floating away. The anchor rode consisted of line and chain. The flukes on the anchor are huge and sharp. I worried that one might puncture the dinghy, and wouldn't that be "grand" after we just bought a new motor for it! My worries were for naught as no punctures occurred.
However, it was a struggle for Jim to pull up the anchor as Clark help the dinghy in place directly over it. The anchor had dug in quite nicely to the muck at the bottom of the creek and was extremely hesitant to let go of its hold! Balancing the dinghy while pulling up a a good sized aluminum Fortress anchor was a tricky situation. I wondered if the dinghy would toss both Clark and Jim into the water with the effort to haul the anchor up.
Finally, Jim was able to get the chain into the boat and the anchor released from the bottom. They did not need to pull the anchor into the dinghy, just get it up to the dinghy so it could be placed on a dock. John and I were standing by on Clark's dock to receive the anchor. It was mucky and facing the wrong way so the flukes were under the dock. We got it reversed and dunked it a few times to get the worst of the muck off before dragging it onto the dock. Phew! Step one of reassembly mostly done! Cleaning the anchor would be saved for later.
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Jim and Clark
anchor retrieval completed |
When the guys started working on reassembly, the sun was peeking through the clouds. By the time Clark and Jim had retrieved the anchor, it started to drizzle a bit. Clark had taken off his Gortex coat but quickly asked for it back as it started to rain.
Jim, on the other hand, was dressed in shorts and had no coat. By the time we were done with the day's work, he was totally soaked. He said he misjudged the weather. As the day progressed, the rain only got harder. By the time Clark and I got back in the house, we were both dripping water on the floor from our coats and hats.
As the guys took the docks apart yesterday, I decided it would be prudent to keep track of the hardware. I ran to the boat, got baggies, labeled them dock #1 and dock #2, and collected the bolts from the guys as they took the docks apart. I feared that loose hardware in a bucket that could get kicked over was a recipe for disaster.
Having the hardware in bags with the tools in a bucket proved useful when Clark was standing on the dock and the hardware was on shore. Fortunately, he had a boat pole that he could point in our direction. We hooked the bucket on his pole, and he pulled it over to begin the reassembly work.
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| John on older, wooden dock with rings back in place |
Putting the newer dock back in place was a little tricky. Clark and Jim rowed out to the dock in the dinghy and climbed onto the dock. I ran up to the bow of Sunset Delight and threw the line attached there down to Clark on the dock when he was ready. Then they had to pull themselves in on the dock to position it where it belonged.
This meant weaving it through between the two poles and rotating the dock to line up with the poles. Jim had to grab hold of the further out pole and stay holding it while Clark maneuvered the dock into position. Jim lost hold of the pole a couple of times, and Clark had to get him back in place. I can't imagine steering and moving a dock into position using one line and a pole, but Clark managed it.
Once Clark had the ring hardware installed, we had to deal with lowering the ramp back down to the dock. Without Garner to help, I was concerned about the weight of the metal ramp as we lowered it down to the dock. John and I grabbed the lines on shore while Jim and Clark held the base of the ramp. I pictured crushed hands if something went wrong and the ramp went down in a hurry. Fortunately, John untied the line from the tree, and we found going down was easier than pulling it up as it gracefully settled into place. Again, Phew!
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Neighbor's Dock
Back the way it belongs! |
Garner's boat is still tied to Sunset Delight's port side. I joked that we may be taking it to Florida with us.
I had one bit of disappointment with this whole adventure. When I went to do my NY Times puzzles, I found that, in all the excitement, I had failed to do the Wordle yesterday. I haven't missed a day in months, but now my streak shows "1 day"! How sad! My max streak is 186 days. Maybe it's time to find a new hobby.
