s/y Gusto weathered Irene at Treasure Cay Abaco. Read about their preparations & experience with Irene below:

Gusto at double slip at Treasure Cay Marina (Abaco)—evacuated Wednesday afternoon to small condo near our pier.

Prep included–all lines doubled with fire hose chafing around each line (16 lines in all—to pilings)/ all canvas removed/ halyards to top of mast/wind instruments removed from top of mast/any lines loose wrapped around mast/ halyard shackle wrapped with duck (gorilla) tape/55# Bruce anchor w/150′chain and 100′heavy line deployed from stern/canvas hatch covers off/ solar panels off/ everything off deck/ gorilla tape around solar vent intakes/dorade vents removed-replaced with caps/gorilla tape around deck hatches/ heavy dog down opening ports and put plastic over chart table and under ports and over mattress/staysail boom and mast boom lowered lowered, chafing gear applied, and then tied to deck/turned off all power except 12 volt Engel refrigerator–which worked because our AirBreeze wind generator kept us charged and worked wonderfully.  Probably other things I forgot—took two days to do this—–and we’re exhausted!

Took to condo many flashlights- vhf-barometer. Could not find sony allchannel radio we’d bought from you at SSCA—had no communication and really missed a radio.

Wind reported Thursday 120kts. sustained/135 kts. gusts. 90 minute eye.  Only damage port bow guide chock for dock line leading to cleat-was torn off, but double line on cleat ok. 13′whaler dinghy full of water (leaves blocked drains)-bailed with trash cans during eye, lest Merc engine get under water—but ok too. Spot [Globalstar's messaging device] was wonderful for letting family know we were ok. Had no communication other than that.

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And this video from Brett Anderson, s/y Liberty, Colonial Beach, VA

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Image below is from NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division, and approximates averaged winds at 6:30p EDT on Friday, August 26. Local winds may exceed these values by 10-30k.

Irene pummeled Elizabeth Harbor in Georgetown Exuma overnight, with wind backing from NE-N-NW-W at speeds up-to-100k (at-least in gusts), with sustained wind generally in 60-80k range. Images courtesy of s/y Glenice in G’twn.

At BOTTOM of post is estimate of averaged sustained wind in N & C Bahamas this morning…NOTE that sustained wind in any given location may run 10-30k higher than the large-scale averaged winds depicted.

Wind analysis for Central & N Bahamas at 9:30am Thursday, Aug 25, 2011

The accompanying image is courtesy of NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division, and estimates the average sustained wind surrounding Hurricane Irene at 9:30pm Wednesday, Aug 24, 2011.  Reports from vessels suggest maximum sustained wind is as much as 10-30k above these averaged winds.

In this image, Irene is near the N tip of Long Island, Bahamas.  Sustained Hurricane Force winds (65k) are inside the thick line in the Yellow colored area / 50k+ wind inside the think line in the Green area / 35k+ wind inside the thick line in the Blue area.

Marine Weather Center launches redesigned website Thursday, April 14!

After 7 months of development, and 3 false starts (when previous developers quit or were fired), the new MWxC.com website launched Thursday, April 14.

It was more difficult, stressful and expensive than I dreamed, but the end result is beyond my expectations.  The new MWxC.com site will serve as the foundation for a fully-featured Internet weather destination for our clients in the near future.

For now, weather offerings are more-clearly described; new and existing clients can purchase (and renew) weather products; existing clients can add or edit all their details, view forecasts sent to them, view some of the notes I’ve made during our interactions.

Delivery of email from the new list server is buggy, and we’re working hard to fix this.

I hope to have a better Webcasting solution next week (for now, access audio & text Webcasts from 6:30a-9:30a EDT at http://mwxc.clickmeeting.com/SSB_Voice_Nets/).  Next week, Webcasts will be accessed from your Client Panel at MWxC.com

The biggest changes are behind-the-scenes, with an advanced database which processes orders & renewals in real-time, automatically maintains mailing lists, will send renewal notices, track each interaction I have with a client, and allow me to view client’s details each time we interact.  The result is I’ll be able to focus on delivering the best vessel-specific weather forecasting and routing advice to Marine Weather Center clients, while administrative tasks are handled by smart software.

Chris Parker will conduct Webinars – live, web-based, interactive seminars -through SSCA:

Wed23, 8p: “Weather 100: basic Marine Weather”
Thu24, 8p: “Decision-making: Creating a forecast for your vessel”

Click for details.

It’s been nuts at Marine Weather Center the past 4 days, with preparations for, then conducting 2 Webinars in conjunction with SSCA.  We had close to 75 participants each evening (Monday Jan 24 & Tuesday Jan 25) for “Weather 101″ and “Weather 102″ respectively.

However, as a result I’m really backed-up with work.  I’ll try to process orders which have been submitted via my website on Thu28, and I’ll try to catch-up on answering emails Thu28 & Fri29.

If you have an urgent need for something, please contact me by phone, email, or by typing your request for assistance into the “Support” page on my website.

Thank you for your patience as I play catch-up…Chris.