home

T

he Tropical Storm season didn’t wait long to bring the first named tropical storm to Oriental. Just 7 days in, Andrea came calling. Top winds were clocked at 51 mph around 1p on Friday.

Oriental’s anchorage mid-afternoon Friday after winds of up to 51 mph were clocked. One of the boats that has been anchored here for months, Southern Cross, (cream colored bow facing land) drifted and went aground after its anchor line broke.

The wind was out of the south, which in Oriental meant that water levels dropped. Instead of a flood, which would come with a Nor’easter, Oriental got the opposite. Low water can bring its own set of challenges, compounded by the driving wind. It was especially evident in the Oriental anchorage where two of the three boats that have become long-term presences, went aground. One of them, Southern Cross, drifted after its anchor line snapped, and it grounded, pointing to land.

In a photo taken after the boat went aground, a line of pink descends from the low, heeled-over starboard side of Southern Cross. (Barbara Pearson photo.)

Bill Hines says the smell of diesel in the anchorage was strong downwind of the sailboat Southern Cross. Hines says that the National Response Center was notified of the spill by Oriental’s Police Captain, Dwaine Moore. Moore says an estimated 15 gallons spilled in to the harbor.

Here are some scenes from the day.

The heavy winds took water out of the anchorage. grounding the SV Primadonna, which has been in the anchorage since the beginning of the year. Beyond it is a boat that sought shelter from the storm in the anchorage that morning.

One of two visiting boats that sailed (literally) in to the anchorage that morning, seeking shelter from the storm.

Conditions were becoming rough in the morning. They would worsen by early afternoon with gusts of 51mph. The visiting boats dropped anchor upwind of the long-term boats in the harbor, which put them at the edge of the anchorage.

Dolphins from Point Pride Seafood, near the Oriental breakwater. Beyond, some of the afternoon white caps churned up by Tropical Storm Andrea.

The low water conditions persisted. A day later, a number of local boats and crews couldn’t leave their creeks to take part in the Leukemia Cup Regatta, because the water was still too low.

The boardwalk at Lou Mac Park.

On page 2, more photos from Andrea…

[page]

At the end of South Avenue near Vandemere, where the remains of a breakwater provide some resistance to waves when the water level is low, as it was Friday.

Lou Mac Park Pier.

Along the South Avenue waterfront near Lou Mac Park. While there were dark skies toward the south, as more storm came Oriental’s way, the skies were blue farther up the Sound.

Another perspective of the anchorage, as seen from “South Park” the South Avenue right of way.

As seen from the South Avenue right of way on Oriental’s Harbor, looking across to the anchorage.

Bluer skies were coming. View from Hodges Street of the Oriental Harbor, with clearer skies on the horizon.

As the oak is bent, so grows the tree.

Andrea at the beginning of her journey in the Gulf – image from the NOAA GOES satellite.

Posted Sunday June 9, 2013 by Melinda Penkava