I would have liked to write a general post about my first few days here in Connecticut for the Williams-Mystic program, but the weather has gotten in the way. There's a hurricane headed straight for us this weekend!
It's pretty rare for a storm to hit New England like this; we're more likely to face blizzards and ice storms than tropical storms or hurricanes - and when hurricanes do make landfall on the East Coast, they usually weaken so quickly that the only impact the NE feels/sees is some wind, rain, and bigger ocean waves. That's been my experience, anyway. This time is different, though: according to reports, Hurricane Irene is actually supposed to come straight through Mystic on Sunday. We have been busy all day today and will be busy tomorrow preparing sandbags, moving things out of basements, and securing our houses, not to mention the boats at port. On Sunday night we're supposed to hunker down together in the W-M Marine Science Lab, which happens to be a hurricane-proof building.
It's a little crazy to be packing up our houses, moving to the Lab for a night, and then to come back to our houses on Monday to unpack/repack before leaving for Boston on Tuesday morning to board the SSV Corwith Cramer and set sail for a ten-day sailing trip. Yup, we are following Irene out to sea... no need to worry. Actually, there really is no need to worry. We expect the storm to have passed fully by the time we shove off Tuesday morning. And the W-M staff will definitely abort or change plans in consideration of our safety.
Wish I could write more at this time... but I have to go help with dinner! We have cooperative living arrangements here, so I'm living in a house with three other people and we cook for ourselves and all that and it's been nothing but fun so far (never mind that this is only day four).
I'll post a more substantial update and intro to Mystic, complete with pictures, when we get back from the offshore voyage.
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