We Move Back to Fleetwing - but some boats had moved to shore

 It was good to be home again. Fleetwing suffered no damage and we quickly put the dodge back up but the bimini had a problem with the aft zipper. The thread exposed to UV on top of the bimini gave way. The 20 years of UV light was too much to ask of the sewing thread. The bimini fabric was fine, Sunbrella is tough stuff! Terri, our friend from Jacksonville offer to do the sewing with her professional machine and after a few tries ourselves, we realized it was beyond our capabilities - so we took Terri up on her generous offer. We’ll travel to Jacksonville where she lives and for the repair. 

After every storm, it seems we get boats that come ashore. In all the cases I’ve seen, it’s been due to lines tied to the mooring that parted. The mooring itself still sits out in the mooring field, lonely now. Those that moor never seem to learn that a Cat 1 hurricane requires extraordinary preparation in ensuring lines are double and triple tied with fresh line. 

First of all, I would never leave a boat out on any mooring in Cat 1 conditions. Even if your lines were enough for the conditions (doubled and tripled), the problem is in those around you. If a boat breaks free and starts drifting down the mooring field, you have no chance. The boat gathers other boats and you have a floatilla coming at you. This scenario happened at the Cat 4 hurricane that hit Marathon. Some boaters had prepared perfectly - but they were defeated by those that did not - and involuntarily joined the floatilla flushing out all the boats as it drifted through the mooring field. 

We saw about a half dozen boats come to land during Milton. We saw none still attached to a mooring ball. Their lines had parted, the mooring ball was still anchored firmly. In talking to the marina office, I learned that the owner of each boat out in the mooring field was contacted and offered an inspection with lines being added or replaced, for a fee of course - no free work. They all to a captain, passed on the offer. Now they have to go through insurance claims and arrangements for salvaging their boats. Experience is the only teacher - and sometimes that doesn’t even work. 

This post is the last in the series. I covered Milton and hopefully, there are no more hurricanes but then it’s still October and not even halfway through - but we can hope. 

A Wild Night

 It was eerily quiet as the eye passed over us at 4:00 am. Half an hour later, the north winds off the back of the hurricane started. They were the strongest winds of the night, clocked at 103 mph by one nearby weather station. I had my wind instruments going on Fleetwing which included recording the highest wind gust at 67 mph in the marina! 

Later that morning we went to the marina to see how Fleetwing fared. No damage was seen! There was some damage to the pier with shards of wood on Fleetwing's deck but no damage to the boat. That must have been some wind to push Fleetwing into the pier so hard.

It’s still raining with north winds over 25 kts so we’ll stay on land until Friday late morning and then it’s moving everything back to Fleetwing. The Bimini needs to be resown before putting it back up, another chore. 

All in all, I think we came through a Cat 1 hurricane pretty well. Florida utilities, at least in the cities, are built well. We never lost power and on our drive to the marina today, only three stop lights were not working. All businesses are still closed but will reopen Friday. 

Sitting Milton out in a motel

Hurricane Milton was not to be messed with so we decided to spend the next two days ashore. Ann had the idea to cook a two day supply of chicken casserole since we had a refrigerator and microwave in the motel room. Any meal at a restaurant, even if it was open (most were closed) would not be a gourmet experience - much less with the joy of standing in line for service with everyone else displaced by Milton. 

The boat prep included removing all canvass which we did yesterday. This morning it was closing all seacocks and adding more lines (you can never have too many lines in a hurricane). The sailor's question is,”Is that extra line I have on board of better use in a locker or tied to a cleat leading ashore?” A line in a locker never saved a boat. Lines seldom break, when they fail it’s from chafing so you have to watch that they do not rub against anything when they stretch from a gust of wind.

Our room was ready early so we moved in by 10:00 am as you can see above. The motel is supposed to supply a free breakfast but the staff needed to be with their family as the eye goes over us Thursday, we will be here all until Friday morning.

The rest of today was spent watching Milton approach and the more than 50 tornado warnings associated with the storm even though it hadn’t even come ashore yet.  The photo is from this afternoon. The red lines circle the tornado warning areas. The red arrow points at Titusville. There were lots of videos of tornadoes on TV today, not encouraging for us with Fleetwing docked nearby, hoping they did not approach Titusville - so far, so good. 

So we’re snug, protected in a motel room, and watching much, too much TV about Milton. 

 

 

We have a blocker to the east. A 72 ft powerboat pulled in today and we’re grateful since they will provide some protection from wave action from a critical direction. I found out later that the captain is an avid user of Bob423 tracks, “Saved my bacon many times!” 

Today was more of getting ready. Our monumental task today was taking down the dodger and Bimini which are now safely stored in the aft cabin. The bimini needs some work. It’s not torn but rather the thread deteriorated over the years in places. It needs to be resewed - a task for when we return. 

We also had a new aft air conditioner installed so any prospective crew can cruise in comfort. The AC unit will both cool and heat, depending on the setting desired. In the last five years, we’ve replaced two AC units, the hot water heater, the main cabin fresh water pump, two shower sump pumps, two shower heads, the galley faucet, new galley lights, new main cabin lights, head hoses replaced (not a nice task), four head manual pumps replaced, along with the usual oil, fuel, and filter changes. A boat needs care. 

I already had two lines on all cleats but why not put on a few more? Does a line do better duty in the locker or outside helping to keep the boat away from hard things. With that, I hauled out more lines and the worst wind direction now has four lines to help keep Fleetwing off the pilings. 

On Wednesday we will move to the local BestWestern Motel for two days. Hopefully, all our preparations will be good enough for leave Fleetwing unblemished. 

Take down all canvas?

 

The best advice is to remove everything off the boat that could catch the wind. The decision point on just how much to remove will be Wednesday morning. We have the dodger and bimini to consider, both come down easily but are a bear to put back up. 

Meanwhile, Milton is now a Cat 5 hurricane with 180 mph winds but it’s supposed to weaken as it approaches Tampa. The worst cast scenario is for Milton to track slightly to the north of Tampa so the anti clockwise winds would push water into Tampa Bay. With the present projections, that’s the path. 

For us, it still looks like the eye will pass over us. A better case would be for the eye to pass to the north so we would get the wind off land, resulting in less wave action. In any case, we’ll be in a motel to see how things turn out. Winds are projected to be “only” 125 mph when it comes ashore at Tampa. 

In the Eye of the Storm - Titusville at a dock

 

It looks like Hurricane Milton has us in its bullseye. It’s predicted to be a Cat 3 at landfall near Tampa and still a Cat 1 when it reaches us on the east coast.Milton will be our 5th hurricane that we’ve been through or near while and it will be our second passage of the eye over us if Milton maintains its projected track.

We decided to not experience the hurricane on the boat, not too comfortable, so we have a room for two nights on Wednesday and Thursday when it’s due at Titusville. We first tried Hampton Inn but found that they tripled their prices just for those two nights!! Talk about price gouging! 

The docks here are massive and we will be tied off so we won’t come into contact with anything fixed. We should be okay. We’re on A dock which is dominated by sailboats. 

I will keep the wind speed instrument turned on for the duration so I’ll have a record of the maximum wind speed. Meanwhile, we’re watching the storm as it barrels towards us!

Titusville - Last post in 2023

Taco Grouper - very  good 

We did the last of the packing this afternoon and we’ll be leaving early Thursday for Lagrangeville, NY. I spent most of the afternoon installing an automatic dewatering pump in the dinghy (since we leave it in the water - it tends to fill up from rains). 

We said goodby to Titusville with a dinner at Pier 220 Seafood and Grill. It’s a nice place with a view of the ICW although tonight it was very stormy, no boats were passing by. It’s popular with the locals and it has live music on Thursday through Sunday night. 

This is the last post of 2023 as we leave Fleetwing to tend to itself while we’re away. We will return the first or second week of January but I may not restart the blog until we head north again on April 15th, we’ll see. Until then, stay safe!  We miss Hoolie…