Cautiously optimistic

We (ok, probably just me) spent the morning resigned to the loss of the boat. Couldn’t see how she could possibly be ok with a storm surge so great that people in New Bern were getting rescued because their ground floors were inundated with water.

Then we got word about some photos of the marina, taken this morning. We anxiously scrutinized them, and among the many photos, we found this shot of Cupcake. Afloat.

She is the boat farthest on the left. The one with radar at her top set of spreaders.

She looks fine to us: floating at her waterline (not low in the water as if she is leaking or sinking). She is where we left her (next to her sister ship – another Pearson 36-2 parked stern towards the camera). In another shot you can even see that the fenders we left over Cupcake’s port side are still hanging from the lifelines.

The tide/surge may still come up high enough to imperil her, but at this point with the majority of the big winds and waves moved to the south and with the rain past its heaviest, we are feeling a little bit better. We couldn’t see any listing/sinking/damaged boats at all in the marina. That fact is just amazing.

We still don’t know when we can or should head back to New Bern, but boy are we boat-sick like never before. It’s unlikely Cupcake escaped completely unscathed. At a minimum, we anticipate chaos in the cabin, possibly some water damage and mold and all that. But we can deal with those things if she is still afloat.