The Atlantic hurricane season is in full swing. While Maine is a long way from the tropics, tropical storms can find their this far north. When that’s forecasted to happen, there are a few options for traveling cruising boats – take a slip in a marina, pull the boat out of the water at a boatyard, or find a well-protected harbor.
After doing a bit of cruising now, we have a pretty high confidence level in Madrone’s anchoring setup. So, we generally prefer to be away from hard objects like docks when the wind really pipes up. And with bottom paint that doesn’t like to be exposed to air once it’s been wet, it’s a fairly easy choice for us to look for a well-protected spot when bad weather is on the way.
With Hurricane Henri forecast to make landfall somewhere in New England, we decided to take shelter in Pulpit Harbor on North Haven Island. The almost completely land enclosure of the harbor, with only a narrow entrance passage, should do a good job of preventing big waves from building up. And moderate depths over the sticky mud bottom means that our ~77lb (35kg) Spade anchor should hold well.
We arrived to Pulpit Harbor a few days before Henri was forecasted to arrive so that we’d have a good choice of anchoring spots. That also gave us a chance to explore the beautiful island of North Haven.
In the end, Henri turned out to be a non-event in Maine. We had a bit of rain and an evening of gusty winds, but thankfully nothing more severe than that. We’ll take it.
