After slamming Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Turks & Caicos islands, Hurricane Fiona is headed towards Nova Scotia by way of Bermuda. It looks like the eye of the storm will pass over the eastern end of mainland Nova Scotia this side of Cape Breton Island. What does this mean to us here?
This is a strong storm. It will do considerable damage. With the rain of the last few days softening the earth and with the trees in full, largely green leaf there will be plenty of knocked down trees all over. But as the center of this storm circulates counter-clockwise, we here on the SW shore of Nova Scotia will mostly experience powerful North, NW and Westerly winds. But not South or SWly winds. These later bring with them heavy seas that can cause a lot of damage in the harbours and to wharves and vessels tied up like Picton Castle. We can expect Northerly winds, so while we anticipate it to be howling early Saturday morning, we will be okay as there should be little in the way of seas. The ship is tucked up under the land and while there will be screeching in the rigging we will be pretty snug and of course the gang has put out all sorts of extra lines and chafe gear to hold our ship secure. Might not get much sleep though.
Cape Breton on the other hand is going to see damaging and dangerous seas.
