Titusville - A hurricane runs through it

 

Fleetwing looked the same as when we left her yesterday

We left Fleetwing around 2:30 pm on Wednesday as Hurricane Nicole was about to make landfall just south of here. We were in the “danger quadrant” where the speed of the hurricane adds to the spreed of circulation around the eye. 

Fleetwing did take a bite out of the nearby piling during a gust

We tied up Fleetwing as best we knew how, double and triple lines and went about five miles inland to a Days Inn. They allow dogs with a $10 charge. We could hear the wind howling all night long but could only imagine what was happening to Fleetwing. 

We spent a restless night with me worrying about our boat and woke up around 5:45 am, couldn’t get back top sleep then. We watched the news which did not appear to be good! There were hurricane force gusts off Titusville which raised our concern.

I saw a posting about someone at Titusville walking the docks and giving a status on boats - I quickly texted him and he took a photo of Fleetwing which was fine! The boat rode out the storm in good shape, no damage at all. I looked at our wind gauge and the peak wind seen was 57 kts (65 mph)!

Some canvass did not survive but our enclosure was unaffected

In talking to some of the old timers who live on boats in the marina, it was the worse storm they had ever experienced. They said the storm never let up, there were no calm periods - only unrelenting wind, on and on, all night long. They didn’t get any sleep. 

We are now on Fleetwing and it’s calm, a very nice calm! I much prefer calm to storm!