As hurricane Earl came up the eastern seaboard it's power slowly diminished finally becoming a tropical storm by the time it was parallel to the North Fork last Friday afternoon. The rain measured a little less than three inches in my gauge though it might have been more as rain flying sideways would have a tough time getting in there. The wind gusted to over forty miles per hour off and on during the day making me glad that we'd buttoned up a bit by taking down hanging plants from the front porch, putting all the lawn furniture in the garage and staking down the canopy over the deck and the boat on it's trailer. We've seen boats in houses and hung up in trees after Andrew hit Florida so I thought I'd go ahead and take the precaution. I find it hard to imagine a wind of 125 mph! We felt our home would not have any problems as it had survived the big one back in 1938 that had destroyed nearby structures.
Around 4 pm, knowing that Earl had passed us by out to sea, we decided to make a run down to the South Fork to take a look at the Atlantic. With very little traffic on the road we made good time and were on the Ponquogue Bridge approaching the Shinnecock Inlet 40 minutes later, an inlet that was created by the storm in '38, only to find a police car barring most of the road. I think he was there to warn folks of the deep water ahead but he was letting SUVs through. It was very deep in places but slowly we were able to get near the inlet, park, put on foul weather gear and step into the wind and driving rain. I've stood on the jetty and fished in the sun many times with the water below me as much as 10 feet and more. Today it wasn't a safe place to perch.
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