Hey there you Tampa Bay boaters, are you heeding the warnings and heading inland. Here is a wonderful time to have a trailerable sailboat! It's always nice to be able to get the boat out of the water and head for the hills. If 800,000 people are evacuating, motel rooms will be pretty hard to find, and your boat could come in handy!
Dimitri, MacAttack can you give us a blow by blow on the situation down there?
Hurricane Charley
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Terry Chiccino
- Chief Steward
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:27 pm
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Santa Cruz, CA., '02x,w/'09 Honda,efi
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Tahoe Jack
- First Officer
- Posts: 309
- Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:50 pm
- Location: Lake Tahoe Nevada 2001 26X Evin/Suz 50..'Octopus'...
Hurricane Charley
Terry....I sort of expect both are very very busy. I'm sure all join in wishing the best for our Mac friends as well as other Floridians. Looks as if Bonnie is less serious. Jack
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Jack O'Brien
- Captain
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 6:28 pm
- Location: West Palm Beach, Florida, 2000X, Gostosa III
See Hurricane Charlie
Key West: http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=CG009&size=S
This view is looking across the Key West ship channel toward Sunset and Wisteria islands where the Conch Cruisers anchored on their Dry Tortugas trip. The Thursday night forecast for the Dry Tortugas is 50 to 70 MPH winds.
Have not seen the following sites in daylight so cannot vouch for them.
Naples: http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=NPLSG&size=S
St. Pete: http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=STPFL&size=S
This view is looking across the Key West ship channel toward Sunset and Wisteria islands where the Conch Cruisers anchored on their Dry Tortugas trip. The Thursday night forecast for the Dry Tortugas is 50 to 70 MPH winds.
Have not seen the following sites in daylight so cannot vouch for them.
Naples: http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=NPLSG&size=S
St. Pete: http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=STPFL&size=S
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Jack O'Brien
- Captain
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 6:28 pm
- Location: West Palm Beach, Florida, 2000X, Gostosa III
Hurricanes
In 1999 Hurricane Irene was forecast to go up Florida's west coast to Tampa, just like Charlie. But Irene turned at the last moment and came over West Palm Beach. Wind-wise it was puny but it dropped 16 inches of rain over two days and the lake behind our house rose a couple feet.
I keep Gostosa III on trailer at a sailing club in West Palm Beach on the bank of the Lake Worth Lagoon aka the ICW. I didn't feel threatened enough to drop the mast. I did put some concrete blocks under the trailer frame (to spare the springs) and filled the ballast tank with 1400 pounds of water.
As it turned out here we had some good breezes, 20-30 knots but no rain.
The poor folks on the west coast and mid-state have lost a lot.
I keep Gostosa III on trailer at a sailing club in West Palm Beach on the bank of the Lake Worth Lagoon aka the ICW. I didn't feel threatened enough to drop the mast. I did put some concrete blocks under the trailer frame (to spare the springs) and filled the ballast tank with 1400 pounds of water.
As it turned out here we had some good breezes, 20-30 knots but no rain.
The poor folks on the west coast and mid-state have lost a lot.
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Sloop John B
- Captain
- Posts: 871
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 2:45 am
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Florida 'Big Bend'. 02x Yamaha T50
Bonnie hit Apalachicola, crossed Apalachee Bay and socked into Perry, FL.
Went by seven to 10 miles from my house. Being on the east side of the this tight small beast caused a little wind and quite a bit of rain. If it had been to the west of here, a lot of stuff would have been knocked over. Sort of like having a .30 .30 round zip through your hair.
Tampa was spared a catastrophe but waterfront pictures coming in show a real mess. Land fall pictures of Fort Myers have keel boats beached on their sides.
Went by seven to 10 miles from my house. Being on the east side of the this tight small beast caused a little wind and quite a bit of rain. If it had been to the west of here, a lot of stuff would have been knocked over. Sort of like having a .30 .30 round zip through your hair.
Tampa was spared a catastrophe but waterfront pictures coming in show a real mess. Land fall pictures of Fort Myers have keel boats beached on their sides.
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greybird-M
- Chief Steward
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:00 am
- Location: Cocoa, Florida, Aquanaut, 03 26M, 50 HP Honda
- Contact:
on Charley:
Report from Cocoa, East Central Florida):
moderate wind and rain, max gust here at about 35-45 MPH. . .just a few tree branches blown down, minor power interruptions
Titusville (20 miles almost due north): 'very windy', howling wind (according to my sister) - worst storm they have been through in the 18 years they have lived there, several trees down, power and phone out, about an hour of high wind/rain
Orlando, about 22 miles north of the International Airport (just north of Curry Ford Road, this is where my other sister lives): water and power out, trees down on residential roads, vehicular traffic blocked in/out of neighborhood, she lost her storage shed, most of the roof soffit, some roof damage, someone elses child's yard playset in their backyard
St. Augustine (where my finace~ lives): about an hour of high wind, minor power interruptions, tree branches down. . .
All in all, we were lucky, thank God. We hope all affected are doing well, but we know some folks did not make it.
Oh yeah, I secured my Mac yesterday as best as I was able and have not given it too much thought since. . it's just a boat.
-Walt
moderate wind and rain, max gust here at about 35-45 MPH. . .just a few tree branches blown down, minor power interruptions
Titusville (20 miles almost due north): 'very windy', howling wind (according to my sister) - worst storm they have been through in the 18 years they have lived there, several trees down, power and phone out, about an hour of high wind/rain
Orlando, about 22 miles north of the International Airport (just north of Curry Ford Road, this is where my other sister lives): water and power out, trees down on residential roads, vehicular traffic blocked in/out of neighborhood, she lost her storage shed, most of the roof soffit, some roof damage, someone elses child's yard playset in their backyard
St. Augustine (where my finace~ lives): about an hour of high wind, minor power interruptions, tree branches down. . .
All in all, we were lucky, thank God. We hope all affected are doing well, but we know some folks did not make it.
Oh yeah, I secured my Mac yesterday as best as I was able and have not given it too much thought since. . it's just a boat.
-Walt
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Jack O'Brien
- Captain
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 6:28 pm
- Location: West Palm Beach, Florida, 2000X, Gostosa III
Images of Hurricane Charlie
There are 81 images here. The fifth one is of boats.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/cont ... os/19.html
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/cont ... os/19.html
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Dimitri-2000X-Tampa
- Admiral
- Posts: 2043
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 5:36 am
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Tampa, Florida 2000 Mercury BigFoot 50HP 4-Stroke on 26X hull# 3575.B000
long
I'm back on the board again...very grateful to still have an Internet connection, and a house to put it in 
I'm sure everyone saw the news, it was headed straight for Tampa. I had been watching the movement of the thunderstorms on Thursday evening and suspected it may be pulled Eastward earlier than forecast. In fact, I believe one of the NHC models had been predicting the landfall around Ft Myers the whole time, but 2 other models were disagreeing with that so they stuck to their Tampa forecast. A lot of people seemed to be upset with the forecasters, which is ridiculous of course.
Nonetheless, with four young children and only living 7.9 feet above sea level, we couldn't take any chances, so we spent all day Thursday and then most of the night too getting both vehicles packed up. On Wednesday evening, I spent a couple hours getting all the canvas off the boat and basically preparing it for removal from the water if it kept coming at us. The plan was if it was still coming at us on Thursday, I'd pull the boat. On Thursday, I dropped the mast and pulled the boat out. Turns out I have been putting off getting my new trailer tires so one of them is really bad. I had managed to put some gook in the tire to make the sidewall damage just leak slowly enough to put the boat in, but I was holding off on the new tires until I had some time to do the brakes, etc. No time for new tires now so I just pumped the bad tire back up. This fact kept me from trying to pull the Mac with me. I didn't like the idea of trying to evacuate with a bad tire (and no spare) so I put the boat on the side of the house. (when I get my new tires, I'll keep the old good one as a spare too)
I strapped the boat to the trailer, and then tied the whole mess loosely to the house, a fence, and a tree (in a triangle)...figuring that if the area flooded, the boat (with trailer attached underneath) would bob around in the little area to the side of my house. I probably should have filled the ballast, but I didn't. Of course, the boat had 700# of "trailer" ballast attached. I did leave my 26 gallon water tank mostly full in case the water was needed. I thought we were looking at a cat 2 ... if I had known it was gonna be a cat 4 or higher at landfall, I may have made a better effort to take the boat to higher ground...but like Walt said, it is just a boat and my wife was already getting irritated at the amount of time I was taking to secure it..
Talk about millions of terrorized people. When a hurricane is coming, there is this mad frenzy in the whole city. Stores empty, fast food places full...its a real crazy time. Also a good time to stay off of the main evacuation routes since they are packed full of people. We were ready though, probably stockpiled 40 gallons of drinking water, at least 10 days worth of food, camping equipment, etc.
I'm lucky to have my father's house in Lutz which is about 25 miles from here and about 10 times higher ground than we are at. He spends the summers in Greece so his house is available to us. We seriously considered just driving the whole convoy East, perhaps to some friends in Lake Mary (10-20 miles North of Orlando) but since we still suspected the storm may turn, figured that wasn't a good idea. Turned out it was definitely the right decision, seeing as Charley's eye went right over my friend's house with 90 mph winds at the time. They also have 4 young kids, so it could have been rough. They lost power for about 36 hours and about the same number of shingles off of their roof (one big tree down too). All in all, definitely could have been worse and really makes you wonder about having big trees near your house.
We left for Lutz about 8 AM, a couple hours after the manditory evacuation order was given for zones A, B, and C in Hillsborough County. I don't think I've ever seen them evacuate zones B and C. We live in zone A and it is the second time in 9 years we have had to evacuate. The first time was in 1998 for hurricane Georges. With that one, it was a bit different as they had forecast a turn into Tampa...that time though, the hurricane kept going straight and hit the panhandle I believe. Tampa seems to have some sort of lucky aura around it these last several years. We figured that our luck would be up this time though.
We got to my Dad's house at about 8:30 and spent the next two hours unpacking the cars. About the time we unpacked, we saw the storm start turning towards Ft Myers. By this time, we were just too exhausted to go back home though so we spent the night and came home a day later instead. When the storm contacted Captiva/Sanibel Islands, it jogged North for several miles and we started thinking it might still come to Tampa, but luckily for us, the jog was just a temporary wobble and it kept with its NE course.
My former sailboat (an O'day 272 LE) was sold to a guy in Matlacha which is on the East side of Pine Island. You may have seen the picture of all the boats piled up in Pine Island..no telling if old "Sundance" made it through...of course, that is what insurance is for...and we pay through the nose down here.
So, that is my tiring, stressful, but ultimately, happy-ending story. I think we ended up getting more rain the day after the hurricane (the low pressure that steered Charley away). All in all, winds didn't gust up hardly at all around here, maybe 30 mph or so. Damage total: 1 boat sponge blew across to the other side of the yard. We certainly were blessed on Friday....not so for our unlucky neighbors 100 miles South though.
The weather has been so lousy lately (not one good weekend sailing day for several weeks) I think I'll just leave the boat out until October or so...try to get some cruising mods done instead which is so much easier with the boat on the trailer. Of course, new tires are high on my list too!
I'm sure everyone saw the news, it was headed straight for Tampa. I had been watching the movement of the thunderstorms on Thursday evening and suspected it may be pulled Eastward earlier than forecast. In fact, I believe one of the NHC models had been predicting the landfall around Ft Myers the whole time, but 2 other models were disagreeing with that so they stuck to their Tampa forecast. A lot of people seemed to be upset with the forecasters, which is ridiculous of course.
Nonetheless, with four young children and only living 7.9 feet above sea level, we couldn't take any chances, so we spent all day Thursday and then most of the night too getting both vehicles packed up. On Wednesday evening, I spent a couple hours getting all the canvas off the boat and basically preparing it for removal from the water if it kept coming at us. The plan was if it was still coming at us on Thursday, I'd pull the boat. On Thursday, I dropped the mast and pulled the boat out. Turns out I have been putting off getting my new trailer tires so one of them is really bad. I had managed to put some gook in the tire to make the sidewall damage just leak slowly enough to put the boat in, but I was holding off on the new tires until I had some time to do the brakes, etc. No time for new tires now so I just pumped the bad tire back up. This fact kept me from trying to pull the Mac with me. I didn't like the idea of trying to evacuate with a bad tire (and no spare) so I put the boat on the side of the house. (when I get my new tires, I'll keep the old good one as a spare too)
I strapped the boat to the trailer, and then tied the whole mess loosely to the house, a fence, and a tree (in a triangle)...figuring that if the area flooded, the boat (with trailer attached underneath) would bob around in the little area to the side of my house. I probably should have filled the ballast, but I didn't. Of course, the boat had 700# of "trailer" ballast attached. I did leave my 26 gallon water tank mostly full in case the water was needed. I thought we were looking at a cat 2 ... if I had known it was gonna be a cat 4 or higher at landfall, I may have made a better effort to take the boat to higher ground...but like Walt said, it is just a boat and my wife was already getting irritated at the amount of time I was taking to secure it..
Talk about millions of terrorized people. When a hurricane is coming, there is this mad frenzy in the whole city. Stores empty, fast food places full...its a real crazy time. Also a good time to stay off of the main evacuation routes since they are packed full of people. We were ready though, probably stockpiled 40 gallons of drinking water, at least 10 days worth of food, camping equipment, etc.
I'm lucky to have my father's house in Lutz which is about 25 miles from here and about 10 times higher ground than we are at. He spends the summers in Greece so his house is available to us. We seriously considered just driving the whole convoy East, perhaps to some friends in Lake Mary (10-20 miles North of Orlando) but since we still suspected the storm may turn, figured that wasn't a good idea. Turned out it was definitely the right decision, seeing as Charley's eye went right over my friend's house with 90 mph winds at the time. They also have 4 young kids, so it could have been rough. They lost power for about 36 hours and about the same number of shingles off of their roof (one big tree down too). All in all, definitely could have been worse and really makes you wonder about having big trees near your house.
We left for Lutz about 8 AM, a couple hours after the manditory evacuation order was given for zones A, B, and C in Hillsborough County. I don't think I've ever seen them evacuate zones B and C. We live in zone A and it is the second time in 9 years we have had to evacuate. The first time was in 1998 for hurricane Georges. With that one, it was a bit different as they had forecast a turn into Tampa...that time though, the hurricane kept going straight and hit the panhandle I believe. Tampa seems to have some sort of lucky aura around it these last several years. We figured that our luck would be up this time though.
We got to my Dad's house at about 8:30 and spent the next two hours unpacking the cars. About the time we unpacked, we saw the storm start turning towards Ft Myers. By this time, we were just too exhausted to go back home though so we spent the night and came home a day later instead. When the storm contacted Captiva/Sanibel Islands, it jogged North for several miles and we started thinking it might still come to Tampa, but luckily for us, the jog was just a temporary wobble and it kept with its NE course.
My former sailboat (an O'day 272 LE) was sold to a guy in Matlacha which is on the East side of Pine Island. You may have seen the picture of all the boats piled up in Pine Island..no telling if old "Sundance" made it through...of course, that is what insurance is for...and we pay through the nose down here.
So, that is my tiring, stressful, but ultimately, happy-ending story. I think we ended up getting more rain the day after the hurricane (the low pressure that steered Charley away). All in all, winds didn't gust up hardly at all around here, maybe 30 mph or so. Damage total: 1 boat sponge blew across to the other side of the yard. We certainly were blessed on Friday....not so for our unlucky neighbors 100 miles South though.
The weather has been so lousy lately (not one good weekend sailing day for several weeks) I think I'll just leave the boat out until October or so...try to get some cruising mods done instead which is so much easier with the boat on the trailer. Of course, new tires are high on my list too!
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Tom Root
- Captain
- Posts: 560
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:39 pm
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Annville, PA. s/v-Great White, MacX4787A202,'09 Suzuki DF-50
Dimitri,
I am so glad you made it through the storm well.....as I see from reports many did not. We have fires out here, and the 'Big One' shaker is expected in San Diego County by many predictions before the end of this year! As we all know the wrath of mother nature can be devastating.....again I am sure glad you mentioned your report that all is well!
I am so glad you made it through the storm well.....as I see from reports many did not. We have fires out here, and the 'Big One' shaker is expected in San Diego County by many predictions before the end of this year! As we all know the wrath of mother nature can be devastating.....again I am sure glad you mentioned your report that all is well!
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Dimitri-2000X-Tampa
- Admiral
- Posts: 2043
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 5:36 am
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Tampa, Florida 2000 Mercury BigFoot 50HP 4-Stroke on 26X hull# 3575.B000
Thanks Tom, you are right about that. I have to say that I prefer hurricanes over earthquakes or even wildfires though. They are all catastrophic but at least you can run from a hurricane...these days anyway. Not so before modern surveillance and communication.
One thing that these events do show you though is how people are willing to help other people in a time of need. The people in the Tampa area are doing everything they can to help our neighbors to the south. The day after the storm, many people and trucks full of supplies headed down to the Charlotte harbor area. Our local county fire department was one of the first responders on the scene and were there the same day. Of course, its still very tragic to see people get killed over a few stupid possessions that they could very easily have left behind. I had to explain this to my oldest daughter on Friday morning who did not want to leave all her "stuff" behind. It was a difficult concept for her as she is rather a materialistic child...
Anyway, most people bounce back from these sorts of things and rebuild their lives and "stuff" once again. When we moved down here and bought a place on the water, we accepted the risk and live with it...and for the other 9 months out of each year, we reap the rewards of living in a near paradise. Might be different if the insurance companies pulled out of Florida though.
One thing that these events do show you though is how people are willing to help other people in a time of need. The people in the Tampa area are doing everything they can to help our neighbors to the south. The day after the storm, many people and trucks full of supplies headed down to the Charlotte harbor area. Our local county fire department was one of the first responders on the scene and were there the same day. Of course, its still very tragic to see people get killed over a few stupid possessions that they could very easily have left behind. I had to explain this to my oldest daughter on Friday morning who did not want to leave all her "stuff" behind. It was a difficult concept for her as she is rather a materialistic child...
Anyway, most people bounce back from these sorts of things and rebuild their lives and "stuff" once again. When we moved down here and bought a place on the water, we accepted the risk and live with it...and for the other 9 months out of each year, we reap the rewards of living in a near paradise. Might be different if the insurance companies pulled out of Florida though.
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Terry Chiccino
- Chief Steward
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:27 pm
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
- Location: Santa Cruz, CA., '02x,w/'09 Honda,efi
Dimitri, Oh my God what a mess down below you! I'm so glad to hear that your panic/flight was for naught. May God Bless the individuals in Port Charlotte and surrounds in their time of need.
I can relate to their grief, in 1989 my home was ground zero for the Loma Prieta earthquake! We only suffered property casuality but to the tune of $85,000, kind of hard to swallow when I was a cheap skate and didn't have earthquake insurance!
My parents and siblings live in Safety Harbor and they evacuated when requested to Orlando! What a decision to try to make. Charley went right over the top of them!
Well I guess you can figure you got a heads up, and have some time to think about how better prepared for the next one!
Thanks for the update!
I can relate to their grief, in 1989 my home was ground zero for the Loma Prieta earthquake! We only suffered property casuality but to the tune of $85,000, kind of hard to swallow when I was a cheap skate and didn't have earthquake insurance!
My parents and siblings live in Safety Harbor and they evacuated when requested to Orlando! What a decision to try to make. Charley went right over the top of them!
Well I guess you can figure you got a heads up, and have some time to think about how better prepared for the next one!
Thanks for the update!
direct hit
Hi,
Just got our power back today. We live 24 miles NE of Orlando. It made a direct hit on us a few minutes after it left Orlando. We had thought it was going to the north of us,..then it turned. I filled the water ballast...Jim put a big strap around the boat and trailer. We parked our motorhome next to the new shed (16 x 32) then put "Idle Time" along side of the motorhome. We moved out of the mobilehome into the motorhome for the storm. We went out and checked things out during each lull(wore our motorcycle helments for flying debris) and was still amazed at the damage we saw in the morning. It looks like we may have been hit with a tornado. There is a big path through the woods where all the big trees are down ..several in our back yard. Many of the palms were snapped in half. Luckily every big tree that could have crushed everything went the opposite way. The boat stayed on the trailer and we were rocked around a bit but didnt even lose a window in anything. A mile down the road a Hunter lies on its side next to the trailer. Guess he didnt fill and tie down. Looks like sailing will have to wait till some of the cleanup is done..but we were blessed. Lost a few rafters in the shed when a tree landed on it..but didnt make a hole. Wish everyone had done as well.
Just got our power back today. We live 24 miles NE of Orlando. It made a direct hit on us a few minutes after it left Orlando. We had thought it was going to the north of us,..then it turned. I filled the water ballast...Jim put a big strap around the boat and trailer. We parked our motorhome next to the new shed (16 x 32) then put "Idle Time" along side of the motorhome. We moved out of the mobilehome into the motorhome for the storm. We went out and checked things out during each lull(wore our motorcycle helments for flying debris) and was still amazed at the damage we saw in the morning. It looks like we may have been hit with a tornado. There is a big path through the woods where all the big trees are down ..several in our back yard. Many of the palms were snapped in half. Luckily every big tree that could have crushed everything went the opposite way. The boat stayed on the trailer and we were rocked around a bit but didnt even lose a window in anything. A mile down the road a Hunter lies on its side next to the trailer. Guess he didnt fill and tie down. Looks like sailing will have to wait till some of the cleanup is done..but we were blessed. Lost a few rafters in the shed when a tree landed on it..but didnt make a hole. Wish everyone had done as well.