We Survived Our First Hurricane!

We started hearing about it about a week out. Invest 98 was heading to the Caribbean and would then take a northwest route and visit the States. Four or five days out it was Tropical Storm Isaias, could possibly turn into a hurricane. Don’t know where it’s going exactly but be prepared. Okay.

So we started prepping the boat. Take in all the cushions and pillows, (who knew we had so many cushions and where do we put them?), move the teak chairs inside, tape all the hatches, windows and several doors, cover the instrument panels on the flybridge and the dinghy with plastic and tape, remove all the enclosure windows on the flybridge. Do we need to take down the Bimini cover on the flybridge? No, it’s only going to be a tropical storm and we’ve weathered those before with no problem, just take the windows out so nothing crashes thru and shreds them. Tie extra lines to the boat. Where we would normally have out five lines we now have eight or nine. Move the fenders around so we’re protected from the piling at the bow and the side fenders are lower in the water so they won’t pop up with the wind. Tie down the access stairs to the dock (loosely) so they can’t blow up and hit the boat. Are we ready? Sure!

Now it’s going to make landfall south of us and pass to the west of Wilmington starting about 5 or 6 o’clock on Monday evening. Oh and it’s a Cat 1 Hurricane. Being on the east side of the hurricane means we’ll get the full brunt of the winds. Fun!

We decided to stay on the boat thru the storm. We’ve anchored out in gale force winds before, the docks in the marina were built for storms like this and we were confident that the Laa-Dee-Dah would be a safe haven. Of course there was something we didn’t take into consideration. Hurricanes can bring some nasty tornadoes. As we were sitting on the boat at 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening, a couple hours into the storm, we started getting tornado alerts all around us. We were being instructed to go to our “safe spot”. We don’t have a “safe spot” on the boat. Hmmmmm. One tornado ripped up the other side of the river about a mile or two from us. Maybe staying on board wasn’t the smartest idea we’ve had. Maybe we were just a little naive.

As the winds started really gusting, our neighbor boat lost their Bimini cover. It was not as robust as ours and we were confident ours would hold. Until that really big gust hit. As the stitching started ripping away from the zippers holding it to the frame, our Bimini started bunching up and flapping around. Not good sounds or visuals. Yet in the middle of the hurricane there was nothing we could do except watch it rip more, and do the math in my head for what it would cost to replace it.

Lessons learned:

-Always take down the Bimini. Ours wasn’t damaged beyond repair but now we have to take it down anyway to get it fixed.

-Prep the boat as best we can and then go stay at a hotel. Although we never lost power or wifi during the storm and the boat came thru like a champ, there are just too many variables that could have negatively impacted the outcome. We don’t want to be responsible for jeopardizing someone else’s life to save us.

Although we came thru it all okay, a new, 65′ Hatteras sank on the outside dock of our marina. Apparently the swim platform was bolted to the boat. One of the bolts was missing and it weakened the setup just enough that with a big gust the swim platform was ripped off the boat tearing a hole in the transom which sank the boat. Southport Marina a few miles downriver from us had their pilings give way and ended up with a pile of boats and docks in a mess that will take weeks to sort out.

Hopefully that is the only hurricane we get to experience with a boat. If not, you will find me at the bar in the hotel, waiting for it all to be over with.