We made our way through devastated, storm ravaged, Naples on our way to Marco Island Marina today, not knowing what we would find there.
As we drove into the marina, most trees were downed and light poles bent or fallen. But amazingly, we found our home, s/v Dreamtime, floating peacefully in her slip.
Per our neighbors, as the water was sucked out of the Gulf by Hurricane Irma, all the boats in the marina ended up sitting on the bottom in the mud in the midst of hte storm. probably the safest thing that could have happened.
When the water came rushing back in with whatever storm surge occurred, the floating docks rose to just below the tops of the pilings. We can’t imagine what may have happened if the water level hadn’t dropped, or thetide and surge were greater. But as it is, there didn’t appear to be any major damage to any boats in the marina.
It was evident that the boat had done some major rocking and rolling when we saw a few unsecured things down below had fallen over. But, the only real damage to Dreamtime was a bent television antenna up the mast, and slightly bent davits.
We started the engine, ensured all our instruments, wind indicator, depth sounder and radar all appeared to be intact.
We are very grateful and consider ourselves very very lucky indeed.