By RUSTY DENNEN

A brown tongue of brackish water from Monroe Bay had nearly reached Kyle Schick's office at Colonial Beach Yacht Center.

Outside, his crew secured boats and equipment yesterday afternoon as wind-borne rain fell nearly sideways.

Schick has been through the drill before, and as with every storm, was taking no chances.

"We're checking boats to make sure they're tied up good and letting customers know that we're expecting high tides and strong winds," he said.

"We do the same kind of things on shore--picking up anything that can float away and moving boats on trailers to higher ground."

Schick said tides yesterday were running three to four feet above normal, shunting water into the parking lot and submerging a boat ramp.

High tide was at 10:30 a.m. By noon, the water had begun to retreat. But Schick was concerned about potentially higher water last night, and this morning.

"The one [today] may be the worst of them," he said. An east wind that whipped across the river accentuated the tidal effects, pushing water into Monroe Bay.

Schick is always concerned with such scenarios because the marina was seriously damaged during Ernesto, a 2006 tropical storm with a 7-foot tidal surge, and 2003's Hurricane Isabel, in which water rose 12 feet above normal.

The National Weather Service posted a coastal flood warning for the Chesapeake Bay and lower Potomac River, through 7 a.m. today, with a flood watch through 7 a.m. tomorrow.

Nor'easters are common in the fall, but the rain and wind that's been hammering the East Coast all week is something more, said Nikole Listemaa, a senior forecaster with the weather service office in Sterling.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ida merged with a strong low-pressure system off the Carolinas.

"The low just sort of sits there," she said, not allowing wind and tide-borne water out of the bay and its tidal rivers. "It continues to push water in."

At one point yesterday, water had crept up to Wilkerson's Restaurant along State Route 205 on the west end of Colonial Beach.