"I feel like I have glass shards in my eyes right now," Petty Officer Josh Lemoi said, lamenting the fact that it was 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and he hadn't slept since the day before.

Still sharp as a tack after all that work and stress, Lemoi was able to rattle off boat names, sizes, locations and damages with nary a miss.

Charlie Weidman and crew spent Thursday afternoon hauling what was left of the 35-lobster boat Kaitlyn Exsspress from the rocky shore of Rockland Harbor. USCG Petty Officer Josh Lemoi said the lobster boat was the only vessel destroyed during Wednesday night's storm.

Lemoi, of the Coast Guard Station Rockland, reported at least 10 boats of varying sizes and makes had broken free of moorings and floats throughout the night and early morning.

The first boat to run aground was the 25-foot Blue Bell. She was found behind Conte's Restaurant around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Mayhem in Rockland

The only boat to be destroyed by the 50 mph easterly gusts was a 35-foot lobster boat owned by Joe Labelle and Stephen Ames, both of Rockland. Their boat, called Kaitlyn Exsspress, broke free from her mooring at Landings Marina 30 minutes later, around 7:30 p.m., and hit the rocks at middle pier.

"She was demolished," Lemoi said. "She's the only boat we've seen hauled out in pieces today."

Charlie Weidman, who has a mooring and dive service business, was operating the crane Thursday afternoon to remove the Kaitlyn Exsspress from the rocks and water below, piece by jagged piece.

Broken timbers and spare parts are all that's left of Kaitlyn Exsspress.

Weidman's own 75-foot boat broke free from its mooring in the harbor but he was able to get to it before it went aground, Lemoi said.

One person was known to have gone overboard during the storm, said Lemoi, and it happened in Spruce Head.

Lemoi said Jim Tripp of Spruce Head Island saw his brother's boat come off its mooring and jumped into a dinghy to try and catch it.

"The waves were too high and the wind was too strong and the dinghy got out of control and swamped," Lemoi said.

Tripp spent approximately 20 minutes clinging to a lobster bouy as the Coast Guard scrambled to hatch a plan to rescue him. The wind was too strong to launch the 25-footer and the cove was too small for the big rescue boat so a helicopter took to the air from the Cape Cod Air Station.

A Knox County Sheriff's Deputy waited on shore and a Maine Marine Patrol boat was called but before it could get there, Tripp washed up on shore, refusing medical treatment.

Other boats that suffered damage, Lemoi said, included a 20-foot boat owned by Kevin Taylor, the owner of Landings Marina. Taylor's boat broke free from a float at the marina and rolled over, ruining the engine.

The Landings Marina also suffered damage to at least six pilings and many of the floats had buckled and were missing planks.

Just about the only thing recognizable in the pile of timbers and planks is Kaitlyn Exsspress' prop.

The 28-foot sailboat called Windsong also broke free from a mooring, ran in with the wind and hit the seawall in front of the Rockland Chamber of Commerce and Harbormaster's office at the public landing. The sailboat became wedged under the pier but did not sink.

Meanwhile, wedged under the Atlantic Challenge Pier was the 50-foot powerboat Cork.

The 20-foot Shamrock ran aground in the South End, but Lemoi said it suffered no damage.

The 35-foot Family Pride broke off her mooring in Owls Head and ran aground with little damage and a 39-foot sailboat called Destiny ran aground on Sandy Beach.

"Rockland definitely sustained the most damage in the midcoast from this storm," Lemoi said.

Related Links:

U.S. Coast Guard Station Rockland.

Based in Rockland, Holly S. Anderson can be reached at 594-5351 or by email at mailto:holly@VillageSoup.com

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