12 September 2017
We left the boat in Marco Island, and flew to Colorado for a family/friend visit for a couple of weeks. We watched the weather news with great interest and growing anxiety as Hurricane Harvey smashed into Texas days after we had passed through Houston and Hurricane Irma grew bigger and bigger and then even more massive as she lumbered across the Atlantic towards Florida.
Originally it was predicted the storm would hit the East Coast of Florida and continue up the coast. But with every passing day this became more uncertain, and by the end the West Coast, where Marco island and Dreamtime are, was the direct target.
These were some of the news headlines we didn’t want to be reading:
- Largest hurricane in history in the Atlantic
- First time there are 3 major hurricanes in the Atlantic
- Hurricane has grown into a massive storm, larger across than the whole state of Florida
- Hurricane keeps gaining speed and changing tracks. Nobody knows where it will make landfall.
- The entire state of Florida is in the cone of uncertainty
- Hurricane decimates Caribbean Islands, and expected to gain strength and speed as it makes its way to the US mainland.
- ….and on they went.
For insurance purposes, the marina has to close, and everyone must be off their boat 72 hours prior to a named storm making landfall. We hadn’t totally prepared the boat for a hurricane prior to leaving and we wanted to get back to take the canvas and sails down before the marina closed. (Lesson learned – take the extra few hours and properly prepare the boat whenever leaving it for more than a few days when in a hurricane zone regardless if a hurricane is forecast.)
With the storm growing in speed and size and headed straight toward Marco Island we knew everything had to go our way in our travel to be able to make it back in time to prepare the boat and give it a fighting chance to come through unscathed.
Knowing we would have to find a place to stay to sit out the storm, while we were still in Colorado, we started calling around to a number of hotels far enough inland to not be in serious danger, or so we thought. Each internet enquiry and phone call resulted in “we are not taking any reservations”. Finally after more than half a dozen enquires we found a hotel that would take our reservation for the weekend of the storm. The manager told us she had been at this hotel for over 30 years and they have never needed to evacuate. So, we felt pretty comfortable with that.
Our original plan was to return Florida on Wednesday afternoon, spend the night in Tampa and then have a leisurely drive from Tampa to Marco Island on Thursday to return to the boat. But with the hurricane quickly approaching we had to change our plans.
We kept in touch with the dock master and on Monday he told us he thought the marina wouldn’t close until Saturday, so our plan would still work. But within 24 hours the storm’s track and speed had changed, and the marina would be closing on Thursday! Uh oh! We won’t get back to Florida until Wednesday late afternoon, and another 3.5 hours of driving before we can get to the boat. So if the storm speeds up any more, and the closing time gets pushed up any more, there is no reason to even return to Florida until after the storm, as we won’t be able to get back to the boat and prepare her. Before we checked in for our flight in Denver, we made one last phone call to the dock master and he said Thursday noon was still the expected close time, so we decided to go for it, knowing everything has to go smoothly and we can’t miss one connection.
We were scheduled to again fly through Houston, and thankfully the airport had reopened after Hurricane Harvey just days prior with normal operations having been resumed.
We had to change planes in Houston, and had about a half hour to make that connection. When we had flown through on our way from Tampa to Denver, we were lucky to have the gate be the same for both flights. We hoped this would be the case on this trip. But no. When we deplaned we learned that our next flight was literally the farthest gate away possible and required a train ride as well. We literally had to run and arrived at the gate just as they were finishing the boarding process….whew! We were out of breath but relieved.
Upon arriving in Tampa, the next challenge was going to be finding fuel for the truck. We probably had enough in the tank to get us back to Marco Island, but then the tank would be empty. We already had heard there were lines and shortages. We drove up to the first fuel station we came upon and filled the tank. As Bob was finishing up, a worker came up and put a sign on the pump saying “the station’s tank was now empty”. We literally got the last gasoline they had. (Lesson learned – whenever we are going to leave a vehicle in a hurricane zone, always top up the tank and have it full.)
We made the drive to our hotel and checked in, grateful we made it back in time. The hotel has (or should I say “had”) a great tiki bar where we enjoyed dinner before retiring for the evening.
We woke early Thursday morning, 3 days before Hurricane Irma was forecast to come ashore. We made the drive to the marina 15 miles away, and spent a few hours getting the boat ready. This entailed taking down the two foresails, wrapping the main, removing all the canvas, removing everything that is removable from the deck and cockpit, securing items down below to minimize damage and breakage during what we expected to be a lot of rocking and rolling.
We also packed up some food items to take with us to get us through the expected power outages as well as the “essentials” like boat paperwork, passports, etc. just in case the boat was lost.
By noon, we had done all we could do. We hoped for the best, took a final look back as we walked up the dock, not knowing what we would return to in a few days time.
We returned to the hotel and the tiki bar, as most restaurants in the area were already closed and boarded up.
Our eyes were glued to the weather reports on the television and internet tracking the path of the storm. The storm grew more and more massive and all we could really do was sit and wait for it to hit. There were mandatory evacuations all around, and we made our plans for where we would go if an evacuation was called for our area.
We thought about joining the masses on the freeway heading north, but since no one could predict with any certainty where the storm was going to make landfall, there was no where guaranteed to be safe unless you actually left the state. Fuel stations were running out of fuel throughout the state, and we didn’t get want to get caught on the road out of fuel, and no where to go for safety. And so we sat.
The storm initially was predicted to hit the east coast of Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale) and go up that coast. But then overnight that track shifted, and it was heading further south, now expected to hit the Keys and come up the west coast of Florida. Marco Island was in the bull’s eye.
On Saturday we watched the hotel begin to make their storm preparations, boarding up some windows, taking in the outdoor furniture and reducing risk of flying projectiles around the property.
We continued to watch the storm make its way toward us. They were predicting a huge storm surge of over 12 feet. We were on the 3rd floor, of a 4 floor building, and felt safe. If the roof were to blow off, the 4th floor would be more affected. If the storm surge was any greater than predicted we were far enough off the ground we should be fine.
Our room faced south and we moved the essentials into the bathroom and prepared to spend the night in there if the winds were to come from the south and break the sliding glass door.
We were lucky again because when the storm passed by the winds were coming from the northeast so we were able to safely sit and watch the wind, rain and falling trees from our window.
When the eye passed by, we discovered the Tiki Bar was sadly gone.
Amazingly we did not lose power at any point, but the other half of the hotel did and with that power outage we lost the cable television, so we were no longer able to watch the latest updates. We never lost internet or mobile/cell phone coverage so we were able to stay connected with family and friends. We were in the minority on this front, as when morning came, we saw that nobody seemed to have power anywhere else. The traffic lights were out and businesses were closed with no power.
