Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Suntex at Lantana - Strong Storms

It's really a nice looking condo complex but most of the docks are empty
Ann now makes a daily 10:00 am call to the bridge tender at Southern Blvd Bridge. You never know when things might change. They now know each other and they chat awhile in discussing the status of the bridge closing. This morning there was no change in their schedule. Nothing gets through until next Tuesday morning. So here we sit.

The weather has changed from in the high 80's to the 70's with a front coming through and we suffered through a driving rain with 22 kts gusts. After eight years of cruising on the ICW, we were still unprepared. The winds had been out of the south at 15 to 20 kts and during the storm, they reversed to out of the north. That barged the boat forward and my aft retaining lines were not tight enough. Luckily, we were at high tide so the anchor didn't hit the concrete dock. You would think we would have learned by now. After the storm passed and before the next blow, we had a line tightening session on all corners of the boat. I think we are finally situated right.

 Between storms
On top of everything else, the front port was not dogged down tight and we got water in on the bed, a big no-no. Nobody wants to "sleep in the wet spot." We put out 1500 watt heater directed at the dampness and it seems to be working.

On Wednesday, we will rent a car and do some grocery shopping and take Joe Mastri, a fellow Poughkeepsie YC member, out to lunch. Then its back to the daily call by Ann to the bridge attendant and hoping - more likely there will be a wait until next Tuesday morning provided they are not late in getting the job done. We try not to think of that.

3 comments:

Fred Brillo said...

Bob/Ann,

Look at the bright side....had you stayed on the mooring in Ft.Lauderdale, you would have had a very close experience with a small tornado that went very close to the Las Olas bridge.... not to mention several water spouts just off the beach..We had dime sized hail at my house and 60 mph gusts... Ive not seen hail here in my neighborhood since I moved here 25 years ago. Irma had pretty much pruned all the trees near me so there were no downed branches or big trees.

Bob423 said...

Fred, (should I keep using Fred?), oh the fun we would have had! Sorry to miss the opportunity to expand my weather horizons. Our winds here only got into the 25 kt range with no hail.

Fred Brillo said...

You can use Dennis... I'll answer to anything! I cant believe that the bridge is closed for an entire week. In the past, they usually close one leaf of the bridge while they work or close it during periods of low usage. Im guessing that bridge was in serious risk of malfunctioning and getting stuck up or down or worst of all, somewhere in the middle. At least you're in pleasant surroundings. If you get into the City of West Palm Beach, Clematis Street is where the night life is.

http://www.westpalmbeach.com/clematis/