This might be a stretch, but I am heading out to the east coast this
week and will be in Chevy Chase, Maryland. How is the shore and all
the boats after the storm?
Does any one know about what dolphins you see while you are boating in
this area? Do you know what species of Dolphins you have along your
coast?

How about Porpoises? Are there any Harbor Porpoises? The Harbor
Porpoises was in the Chesapeak Bay a few decades ago, before it became
polluted. I have heard, that with all the clean up effort, a few
Harbor Porpoises have returned?

Does anybody have recent experiences?

Thanks,
BB

This might be a stretch, but I am heading out to the east coast this
week and will be in Chevy Chase, Maryland. How is the shore and all
the boats after the storm?

There's no shore in Chevy Chase. Nearest water's either the Potomac or the
Bay off Annapolis.

Ernesto caused little or no damage. Just the typical stuff you'd see from a
high tide and poorly moored boats. A few lost bimini covers or sails
improperly stowed. But otherwise, nothing of any consequence.

Does any one know about what dolphins you see while you are boating in
this area? Do you know what species of Dolphins you have along your
coast?

In the Bay? None with any regularity. Given how shallow the Bay tends to
be it wouldn't seem like the sort of environment they'd be found in anyway.
Regardless of pollution, which would have had to have been QUITE a while ago
(not just decades) for it to have mattered. The bay's been a working
tributary for quite a long time so pollution's nothing new, certainly ot a
"few decades" worth.

Does anybody have recent experiences?

Out on it every week since this past April, no cetacean or other marine
mammals cited sighted. But I hear NYC had a manatee recently...

"Bill Kearney" wrote:

This might be a stretch, but I am heading out to the east coast this
week and will be in Chevy Chase, Maryland. How is the shore and all
the boats after the storm?

There's no shore in Chevy Chase. Nearest water's either the Potomac or the
Bay off Annapolis.

Ernesto caused little or no damage. Just the typical stuff you'd see from a
high tide and poorly moored boats. A few lost bimini covers or sails
improperly stowed. But otherwise, nothing of any consequence.

I don't know where you are, but we had a 4 foot tidal surge down here
in St. Mary's County MD. There was almost as much damage as from
Isabel - a little less surge and not quite as high winds. And instead
of being without power for a week, we were only without it for 60
hours. Lots of tree branches down, and some boats damaged.

The real problem was that the NWS downgraded Ernesto and then paid no
more attention to it so people were not prepared. Plus of course the
electric co-op phones were out of order so we couldn't report outages,
and the local radio stations went off the air (one of them has a
generator, but has not put it on line). There were evacuations
(particularly places like St. George's Island and Point Lookout State
Park which was closed for awhile).
..

Does any one know about what dolphins you see while you are boating in
this area? Do you know what species of Dolphins you have along your
coast?

In the Bay? None with any regularity. Given how shallow the Bay tends to
be it wouldn't seem like the sort of environment they'd be found in anyway.
Regardless of pollution, which would have had to have been QUITE a while ago
(not just decades) for it to have mattered. The bay's been a working
tributary for quite a long time so pollution's nothing new, certainly ot a
"few decades" worth.

Does anybody have recent experiences?

Out on it every week since this past April, no cetacean or other marine
mammals cited sighted. But I hear NYC had a manatee recently...

We see dolphins off the coast sometimes (Bethany Beach area).

Does any one know about what dolphins you see while you are boating
in this area? Do you know what species of Dolphins you have along
your coast?

In the Bay? None with any regularity. Given how shallow the Bay
tends to be it wouldn't seem like the sort of environment they'd be
found in anyway. .

Sometimes seen in the lower Bay.

I don't know where you are

Annapolis. Surge came in around 7pm and raised the water to just under a
foot beneath the decking. High time at midnight only raised it a bit more
to the decking itself (but not over). There was nowhere near the damage
caused by Isabel. We never lost power, which is a miracle for Easport even
on a good day. So conditions certainly varied by region. And having
travelled north as far as Georgetown this week, stopping in various places
along the way, the lack of damage was similar. Haven't travelled south yet,
how did Tilghman and Oxford handle it?

The real problem was that the NWS downgraded Ernesto and then paid no
more attention to it so people were not prepared.

I disagree, it wasn't NWS or NOAA to blame for lazy boat owners failing to
prepare.

Out on it every week since this past April, no cetacean or other marine
mammals cited sighted. But I hear NYC had a manatee recently...

We see dolphins off the coast sometimes (Bethany Beach area).

Yeah, and I've seen whales off Bar Harbor, but neither are the same as the
BAY.

"Bill Kearney" wrote:

I don't know where you are

Annapolis. Surge came in around 7pm and raised the water to just under a
foot beneath the decking. High time at midnight only raised it a bit more
to the decking itself (but not over). There was nowhere near the damage
caused by Isabel. We never lost power, which is a miracle for Easport even
on a good day. So conditions certainly varied by region. And having
travelled north as far as Georgetown this week, stopping in various places
along the way, the lack of damage was similar. Haven't travelled south yet,
how did Tilghman and Oxford handle it?

The papers have said that the worst damage in Maryland was here in St.
Mary's County. Oxford is definitely north of us. My impression was
that northern VA and St. Mary's took the brunt of the storm and that
the problems were a lot less as you get farther north. Certainly if
you had only a small surge, you had a lot less than we did.

The real problem was that the NWS downgraded Ernesto and then paid no
more attention to it so people were not prepared.

I disagree, it wasn't NWS or NOAA to blame for lazy boat owners failing to
prepare.

I wasn't talking about boat people. I was talking about people who
live on land. I don't think there was much boat damage here (although
I have not really looked). There were some boats on St. George's
Island that were damaged (there was a mandatory evacuation there, and
when the water got too high for the regular cars to get to people to
evacuate them, they went to trucks) but I don't think there was much
elsewhere.

Out on it every week since this past April, no cetacean or other marine
mammals cited sighted. But I hear NYC had a manatee recently...

We see dolphins off the coast sometimes (Bethany Beach area).

Yeah, and I've seen whales off Bar Harbor, but neither are the same as the
BAY.

Neither is NYC.

Rosalie B. wrote:

"Bill Kearney" wrote:

I don't know where you are

Annapolis. Surge came in around 7pm and raised the water to just under a
foot beneath the decking. High time at midnight only raised it a bit more
to the decking itself (but not over). There was nowhere near the damage
caused by Isabel. We never lost power, which is a miracle for Easport even
on a good day. So conditions certainly varied by region. And having
travelled north as far as Georgetown this week, stopping in various places
along the way, the lack of damage was similar. Haven't travelled south yet,
how did Tilghman and Oxford handle it?

The papers have said that the worst damage in Maryland was here in St.
Mary's County. Oxford is definitely north of us. My impression was
that northern VA and St. Mary's took the brunt of the storm and that
the problems were a lot less as you get farther north. Certainly if
you had only a small surge, you had a lot less than we did.

There was another article in the local paper today, and another letter
to the editor from a second area of St. Mary's County. Like the first
one, the author was cut off by rising flood waters from evacuation
before the evacuation order was issued, had no electricity and thus no
internet access or land line phone, the cell phones have no signal in
their area, and when they listened on the radio for news, they got
nothing but recorded music and the national news. They didn't know
shelters were open, or that there were sandbags. They were completely
cut off.

There was also an article in the local Navy base newspaper with some
pictures. They recorded gust of 65 mph, and the article said (with
pictures to document it) that holes were torn in the roofs of two
hangers causing significant damage, the shingles were ripped off the O
Club roof over the indoor pool, there were considerable downed trees
and shoreline erosion, and power outages. There was also ONE boat in
the marina that was sunk. There was a picture of the boat which was a
small sailboat lying on its side in the slip. All the other boats
look to be fine.

The real problem was that the NWS downgraded Ernesto and then paid no
more attention to it so people were not prepared.

I disagree, it wasn't NWS or NOAA to blame for lazy boat owners failing to
prepare.

I wasn't talking about boat people. I was talking about people who
live on land. I don't think there was much boat damage here (although
I have not really looked). There were some boats on St. George's
Island that were damaged (there was a mandatory evacuation there, and
when the water got too high for the regular cars to get to people to
evacuate them, they went to trucks) but I don't think there was much
elsewhere.

Out on it every week since this past April, no cetacean or other marine
mammals cited sighted. But I hear NYC had a manatee recently...

We see dolphins off the coast sometimes (Bethany Beach area).

Yeah, and I've seen whales off Bar Harbor, but neither are the same as the
BAY.

Neither is NYC.

Common dolphins are common in the bay below the mouth of the
Rappahannock River., sometimes as far north as the mouth of the
Potomac.
Never seen nor heard of a harbor porpoise in the bay.


In article .com,
Captain B wrote:

This might be a stretch, but I am heading out to the east coast this
week and will be in Chevy Chase, Maryland. How is the shore and all
the boats after the storm?
Does any one know about what dolphins you see while you are boating in
this area? Do you know what species of Dolphins you have along your
coast?

How about Porpoises? Are there any Harbor Porpoises? The Harbor
Porpoises was in the Chesapeak Bay a few decades ago, before it became
polluted. I have heard, that with all the clean up effort, a few
Harbor Porpoises have returned?

Does anybody have recent experiences?

Thanks,
BB

"Bill Kearney" wrote in
t:

This might be a stretch, but I am heading out to the east coast this
week and will be in Chevy Chase, Maryland. How is the shore and all
the boats after the storm?

There's no shore in Chevy Chase. Nearest water's either the Potomac or
the Bay off Annapolis.

Ernesto caused little or no damage. Just the typical stuff you'd see
from a high tide and poorly moored boats. A few lost bimini covers or
sails improperly stowed. But otherwise, nothing of any consequence.

I know that I'm way late to this discussion, but I just returned from 3+
weeks down on my boat, which is in Deltaville, VA, and I can assure you that
Ernesto was a lot stronger than anyone predicted. In Deltatville they
clocked 68 kts in the marina and at Tangier Island they saw in excess of 90
MPH. The surge in Deltaville was about 5.5'. I purposefully picked Regatta
Point Marina because they had floating docks and I would be around to adjust
lines, etc.

BlueJacket was probably the best tied up boat in the marina and completely
stripped, but many boats weren't secured either due to laziness or the
forecast, which was completely off. Quite a few pilings were broken off,
primarily due to large power boats with huge windage which were improperly
secured. I can assure you that the canvas shops loved the storm as it was
amazing how many people didn't take down their canvas.

-- Geoff

In article ,
Geoff Schultz wrote:

I know that I'm way late to this discussion, but I just returned from
3+ weeks down on my boat, which is in Deltaville, VA, and I can
assure you that Ernesto was a lot stronger than anyone predicted. In
Deltatville they clocked 68 kts in the marina and at Tangier Island
they saw in excess of 90 MPH. The surge in Deltaville was about
5.5'. I purposefully picked Regatta Point Marina because they had
floating docks and I would be around to adjust lines, etc.

We were out on the hook for Ernesto, and it was a fun night, but I
wouldn't call it worse than predicted, nor all that bad -- except for
the surge on the western shore, one reason we chose to be on the
Eastern ;-) We had a foot or two over normal high tide, mostly
from the southerly component all day & night.

I always wonder about people that keep their canvas up all the time.
Summer squalls often top 70 knots and we were in one that exceeded 95
for most of an hour, not to mention the storms with 50+ knots to be
expected each season

'Course, the winds usually come from the north. Deltaville isn't well
protected from the south and east, as I recall.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/