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ith Hurricane Irene approaching, many in Oriental and far away have been preparing their boats for the storm. Some haul their boats out or have a yard pull their vessels. Others apply more lines and secure and secure again the lines at their dock. They wrap the mainsail and foresail tight, take the flying bits off and nervously watch the weather forecasts.

Durwood “Dip” Bryant and Wesley Hatch put stanchions into place at Deatons.

It’s made for a busy week at Deaton’s Yacht Service. Between Tuesday morning and Thursday evening, the crew had pulled 29 boats out of the water and secured them on stanchions. Boats were occupying every possible area of the Deaton’s property, towering over the area where cars usually park, stretching out to the edge of Neuse Drive.

Next step, wrapping chains around pairs of stanchions to keep them in place if — when — high water comes.

Gary Dale, the head mechanic at Deatons says another two boats are to be TravLifted out of the water on Friday and then the boatyard’s two tow boats will also be pulled. One of them, “Captain Ralph” will remain in the TravLift sling so it can be more quickly put in the water if an emergency call comes in.

A sea of stanchions. One hopes the water levels won’t get above them….

Because of the possibility of such a call Gary Dale says, Deatons keeps one space on the lot open. (For instance he says, there could be a boat that gets holed and might possibly sink if the owner can’t man the manual pump all night.)

It’s not an Iwo Jima pose. WIll Wagoner lowers a boat’s antenna pole so the TravLift horizontal bar can pass over and move on to the next boat that has to come out of the water.

Manager Eric Pittman secures one of the forward supports of the twelfth — and last — boat of the day that the Deaton’s crew pulled out of the water on Thursday.

The Southern Cross 31, “Lullaby”, now up on the hard, is Steve Gilmer’s home. Steve drives one of Deaton’s two tow boats.

A view of some of the Deaton’s slips, all of which are empty now in preparation for the hurricane.

Stephen Deaton with a stowaway, a crab that scampered out from a boat’s through hull. (He says an eel emerged from another boat, a day earlier.) Moments after this, the crab was tossed back in to the creek.

The TravLift across the canal at SailCraft boatyard has been busy, too.

More photos of other boat prep, next page…..

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On many boats extra attention has been paid to those things that can come undone. Here, a lineup of trussed mailsail covers at Pecan Grove Marina.

Tony Nelson of Garner traveled to Pecan Grove to tend to his Beneteau, “Hemispheres”. He was folding the sail Thursday afternoon. While he had it off the boat, he said, he was going to take it to get cleaned.

Tony Nelson at Pecan Grove with a folded sail.

The Wildlife Ramp at the end of Midyette Street has been busy this week. It’s the place where smaller boats that usually stay on the water, can be trailered out. Thursday night, some sailors worked to get their mast down in advance of getting the boat out of the water.

Meanwhile, at the other Wildlife dock, Roy Teixeira handled the lines as Jeff Tomczak made adjustments near the hitch of his pontoon boat. It had been in the waters of Smith Creek for about two years, he said, and was being pulled in advance of Irene.

And on to a safer place for the next few days.

A sunset scene in the reflection of the setting sun on one of boat’s pontoons.

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At South Park at the end of South Avenue, a placid moment on the Oriental Harbor Thursday afternoon.

A trawler, “Drifter” at Chris Fulcher’s dock to the right of South Park. A pecan tree in the town’s section of the waterfront is working here as a piling.

The steel sailboat, “Ulysses” was brought to the Town Dock Thursday with intentions of riding out the storm there, unattended. Town officials said it could not stay. Town Manager Bob Maxbauer says that “we’re not a port of safe refuge” and that the dock is “not rated or engineered for the storm” and conditions we are about to get.

One concern was that the boat could damage the Town Dock that hundreds of other boaters rely on throughout the year. Another was that in a powerful storm surge, the vessel could break through the railings at Town Dock and float in to Hodges Street, leaving the town with the problem of removing it. The boat was motored away Thursday night.

Posted Friday August 26, 2011 by Melinda Penkava