It’s November 1st (the end of Hurricane season) which means our insurance company says we can head south. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so we’re moving the boat to FL to store it for few weeks so we can go home to Colorado for the holidays. I know some people might prefer warm weather for the holidays, but not me… Bring on the snowy mountains! We headed south again, practically retracing the same Northern track we took in May. It was a cold, gray day when we left and lots of other boats had the same idea!
After a 2 night sail from Hampton, we stopped (Nov. 3rd) for a night at the Charleston City Marina (in Charleston, SC) and then moved to Skull Creek Marina in Hilton Head. It’s nice to break up the sailing to rest, get a little exercise, and stock up on some groceries. After three nights in Hilton Head, we needed to get moving so we could get to Cape Canaveral/Port Kennedy (by 11/12) where we planned to leave the boat to come home for the holidays.
From Hilton Head, we had an overnight sail to St. Augustine. Right about the time we were leaving (11/6), we began to hear about a possible tropical depression forming in the Atlantic, with a southerly track that wouldn’t affect us much….. or so we thought!
We arrived in St. Augustine early on Monday, Nov 7th to bright sunshine and lovely temperatures. But…. what was a “far off depression” just a day earlier, was now forecast to be a tropical depression, with the potential to be a Cat 1 Hurricane…. AND tracking right up the east coast of FL!!!
It eventually became Hurricane Nicole.
This image shows the projected wind speech and direction from PredictWind (our weather forecast/routing software). Red is NOT GOOD…
We picked up a mooring ball just on the other side of the Bridge of Lions and said a prayer it would hold us because it was too late to move anywhere else.
As the storm approached, we were busy getting the boat ready.
People often ask why we didn’t try to get a spot in the marina but that could have caused more damage due to the surge. On a mooring ball, the boat will rise and fall more gently (relatively speaking) with the motion of the wind and waves, but at a marina you risk being “lifted” by a surge and then slammed back down on the dock which could be much more damaging. Also, we would most likely be next to another boat and if that boat was not tied up well… you get the picture.
The storm “hit” about 6:00 am and this video shows its progression starting at 6:30 am on 11/10 thru 10:00 am. By 11/11, we were back to sunshine and calm breezes and ready to head to our final destination in Cape Canaveral. We called the marina to make sure they still had a slip for us and didn’t suffer any major damage from Hurricane Nicole. They said there was some damage to one or two docks but assured us they would have our berth ready when we got there on Sunday (11/13).
We went ashore the next morning for some exercise and a reporter asked if he could interview me! Ahhh, my 15 minutes of fame….
As luck would have it, out of the blue, we got a text from our friend Even (from Norway), who was in Miami looking at boats that same week. He asked if we would be in St. Augustine on 11/11 or 11/12, and we were!! He and 3 friends drove up from Miami and joined us on the overnight sail from St. Augustine to Cape Canaveral.
That leg of the journey was pure “champagne sailing” – a gentle, offshore breeze, right on the beam, with minimal waves– Magic!!
We came into Cape Canaveral very early on Sunday morning and were met by the Coast Guard who “zipped” up quickly beside us as we were entering the port. We thought we had done something wrong, or they wanted to board to look for drugs, etc., but they only wanted to tell us that a nuclear sub was headed our way and we needed to make haste to get out of the shipping lane by 7:00 am. Yes sir!!
It was about a 20 mile trek from the shipping lane entrance to the Kennedy Point marina and we had to pass thru several opening bridges and a lock.
We also had to go under some power lines that indicated they were high enough (85ft), but Anthony went to the top of the mast as we were going under just to make sure.
We were planning to go directly into our berth at the marina to drop off Even and friends, but when we called to see where to go, they said it wasn’t ready… Hmmmm… This marina is a bit older and set up for monohulls (which aren’t as wide as a catamaran), so they needed to convert berths designed for 2 monohulls into a single berth wide enough for us and that wasn’t going to happen until the next day (Monday, 11/14).
We anchored a short distance away, said our goodbyes, and “ferried” our guests to the dock in the dinghy. As we got closer to the marina, we could see the damage from both Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole. This area got 100 mph winds from Nicole, and they took significant damage to their “breakwater wall”.
Inside the marina, we saw that several docks had broken away (seems like a little more than “some damage“) and 2 boats were almost completely submerged and a total loss. Hmmm…. Where were they going to put us? Was it safe? Starting to have some serious doubts about this setup… We couldn’t get into our berth until Monday, 11/14 and we were both scheduled to fly out/home in 48 hours… I was supposed to fly out on Tuesday (11/15) afternoon- from Orlando to Memphis to see my Dad, on to New Orleans for a conference (11/17) and home to Denver on 11/19. Anthony was going to “put the boat to bed” and fly directly to Denver on 11/17.
Well NONE of that happened! Shortly after lunch on Monday (11/14), they called and said our berth was ready and we could come in. We pulled up anchor, motored over and slowly made our way into the narrow entrance and behind the break water. As we were creeping in, we hit bottom because it wasn’t as deep as the charts indicated. Luckily it was just mud, so no real damage, but it only added to our worry. Two guys were positioned on each side of our berth to help make sure we came in “straight” and didn’t bang into anything. We also had bumpers down as well. We turned to reverse into our slot and were moving in very slowly, but it was a VERY tight squeeze – so close that the bumpers wouldn’t fit…. not good… and it seemed to get even narrower as we continued. After 2 tries, and some looks between Anthony and I, Anthony said to me “We’re outta’ here”, and shouted to the guys on the docks, “Thanks, but it’s not going to work” and we pulled out!
Now what??? It was 3:30 pm on Monday, 11/14. Thanksgiving was a week away, we had flights booked, a conference to attend, etc., but nowhere to leave the boat… Aaack!!! After a few deep breaths, I started to call other marinas in the area, but they were already full. We couldn’t go further south because those marinas were booked as well, so we had to look toward the north – the route we had just sailed!!!! I called the marina in St. Augustine, but no luck -they were full too. Damn!! There aren’t many options for catamarans north of St. Augustine, so Hilton Head was the next choice– where we were a week ago – and thank goodness they had a spot. Even though it was “backwards”, at least we had a destination.
Now the trick was to traverse the 20-mile gauntlet back out of Cape/Port Canaveral – in the dark and hope that we could make it before the 2 bridges stopped opening for the evening. It’s a little creepy sailing a new area in the dark, with utility wires, and bridges and locks and narrow channels, but we made it. This image shows our trek backwards, with a quick detour on Tuesday morning, to get closer to land so I could get a strong internet signal for a meeting. Ha! Ha!
36 hours later were back in Hilton Head. Lots of flights and plans had to be changed, and it was a royal waste of time, but at least the boat was safe, and we would be home for Thanksgiving! Whew! But guess what, that’s not the end of the story either…. the joke’s on us!
Soooo, Hilton Head is a lovely place in the winter with temps normally in the mid to high 60’s and not too cold at night. Normally is the key word – until Winter Storm Elliott, the “bomb-cyclone” that shutdown much of the US. Instead of 40’s at night, Hilton Head was forecast to set a record low of 22o, accompanied by strong winds. Crap! We were only planning to be gone for 5 weeks so we didn’t “winterize” the boat.
We didn’t even leave it hooked up to shore power because we turned off all our systems. What if our lines froze and there was a leak? OMG!!
So, Anthony had to fly back to Hilton Head on Dec. 20th to make sure the boat was secure. When he arrived, it was cold, windy, and rainy and 49o inside the boat – and that was 4 days before the arctic blast was supposed to hit. He was very busy, but at least he got back to Colorado before Southwest had their epic meltdown.
We were all set to go back to the boat on Dec. 28th, but our Southwest flight was cancelled. What a mess! We’re now scheduled to fly out on Saturday, 12/31. Fingers crossed all is well when we arrive. Until then Happy New Year… and Best wishes for Good health, Good friends, and Good fortunes!
Safe travels and fair seas!!! Look forward to seeing you guys “down the track!”
Where are you guys? There was a Moxie on AIS in Spanish Wells the other day. Is that you? I’m sitting here in Georgetown on Joie de Vie. I’ll be here until late Feb monitoring ch68. Lots of lobsters!
“Speed bumps in a dishwasher”…great interview, Janice! Glad you had no issues with Nicole!