Hayes, VA - Severn River Marina

[Kevin's Post]After leaving Fishing Bay we made our way south to Mobjack Bay where Severn River Marina is located. Our plan was to get dockage for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night, crank out some boat projects on Wednesday and Thursday, do some provisioning, then rent a car and go to Busch Gardens on Friday. That was the plan at least. On Wednesday, we pulled all our anchor chain out on the dock so that we could rotate the chain end to end and put some more zinc galvanizing on it. It's kind of like rotating the tires on your car, the galvanizing on the chain doesn't wear evenly, so you are supposed to rotate it periodically. On Thursday we dropped off some parts we needed modified at a local machine shop and went to Sam's Club and Walmart in our rental car. Back at the boat, we re-marked the chain, hauled it back onto the boat and reattached the anchor. Then, Thursday night we go to check the weather for our day of Busch Gardens fun and see that it is probably going to rain. We decide to wait and see, sometimes they are wrong, you never know. Then Friday morning we check the forecast and see this:

GALE WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH LATE SATURDAY NIGHT

TODAY
NE WINDS 20 TO 25 KT EARLY THIS MORNING...INCREASING TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 KT THIS AFTERNOON. WAVES 3 TO 4 FT EARLY THIS MORNING...BUILDING TO 4 TO 6 FT. RAIN WITH VSBY 1 TO 3 NM.

TONIGHT
NE WINDS 25 TO 30 KT. GUSTS UP TO 45 KT...DECREASING TO 35 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WAVES 4 TO 6 FT. RAIN WITH VSBY 1 TO 3 NM.


(BTW, for you non-nautical types 45 KT is 52 mph)

It hasn't rained in about 10 days, and now we get a full blown Nor'easter. No Busch Gardens for us. The weather deteriorated throughout the day. We were able to make a run to the video store at low tide. Shortly after we got back, the finger pier next to the boat disappeared under the water. The strong winds are causing a storm surge and tides which are several feet above normal. The main dock here is typically 4-6 feet above the water and then there are finger piers which stick out from the main dock and go between the boats. The finger piers are supposed to be 2-3 feet above the water. High tide came at about 9:20 PM and at this point 2-3 foot waves were coming over the dock and through the marina. The boats in the slips on either side of us were bucking wildly against their dock lines. The water level was so high that the pilings were only sticking 3 feet out of the water and didn't even go up to our rub rail. We listened to the wind howl all night and wished we were at anchor instead. At least then we would be laying with the wind. This morning high tide came again at 9:40. The main docks were underwater, the parking lot was underwater, the marina office and ship's store were flooded, the power was out, and the only way to shore was by dinghy. And of course, the rental car was due back by noon. I dinghyed to shore thinking that maybe the roads would be ok. Before I even got to the car, I ran into the marina manager who said the roads were 2-3 feet underwater and he barely made it through in his full size truck. My Hyundai wasn't going anywhere. He also said that this was the worst storm surge they have seen since Hurricane Isabel. We called the rental car company and told them what the situation was and they said to try to return it after the water went down. So we waited for low tide at which point the water level was low enough to return the car and hurry back before the finger pier disappeared again. The wind has started to subside and we think it will be ok to leave tomorrow.

The picture shows the marina floating docks 2 feet above the fixed docks which can be seen just above the waterline. They are typically 3-4 feet below the fixed docks and are used by smaller boats and skiffs that would be too far below the fixed dock to climb off. Our rental car is the blue one in the background.


Where we are:
Location=Hayes, VA
Lat=37 18.238 N
Lon=76 27.249 W