On the day Hurricane Sandy is to make landfall on the New Jersey shore, I was up at the general store in Brooklin early talking with Giffy Full about hurricane forecasts in the old days and he told me about Hurricane Carol in 1954 and how he was the only captain to get his yacht out of Marblehead Harbor in the dawn of the storm and drive her to safety inManchester Harbor.
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Douglas Adkins says:
That gallant Capt. Giffy Full should have behaved in such a manner comes as no surprise to those of us lucky enough to have seen him in action. He has been saving boats, pocketbooks and dreams for the nearly six decades since Carol. Thanks for sharing this heroic and impressive story. Good on ya Giffy! Manchester-B-T-Sea is no mean feat in a big blow.
william greene says:
I was the Launch Boy at the Boston Yacht Club in South Boston when Carol hit.We didn’t expect to get hit that bad that day. We lost the docks and had no means to get to the launch. It was destroyed when it hit the seawall. After that, when a Hurricane was forcasted we paid close attention to the weather and made decisions on what we saw to take our new launch up the Neponset River to ride it out. I guess you call that ( Lessons Learned).
David Tew says:
I was only two at the time and we were on Cape Cod for those storms. My family recalls Hurricane Edna came through ten days later and did yet more damage. Does Giffy remember that and how he rode it out?
Thomas Morgan says:
Great skill and a good bit of lady luck. You also saved 4 lives. Well done
Chris Finn says:
Amen to that. Sailing with your eye on the barometer you pretty much watched weather approaching that was relatively close aboard with precious little time to react. The more time you have, the more preventive measures you can swing, and that luxury of time now comes from the advance warning provided by space/satellite based imagery. Of course, what we do with the information is what counts. Giffy’s story is great for the grit it shows. Nothing like waking up already in trouble! Thanks for sharing it. It’s been a rough week for some of our fellow sailors out there. Some sad stories but many were no doubt avoided thanks to the NWS.
Cyrus Dworsky says:
Good story Bill!