Winds wreck boats in Sarasota

[healhustler]

Some pretty stiff winds ran through here overnight, including three tornadoes in Sarasota and Manatee counties. 2 dead, lots of injuries, but while going across the causeway this morning, these three unlucky rag-baggers were being pushed by a steady 30-40 knot winds onto the shore at Ringling bridge. The one boat was still hanging on when I passed but unless he's rescued soon, he'll probably end up there too.

 

[hmason]

The winds were blowing over here in Stuart FL as well. A fellow on the next dock had a Whaler up on his boat deck and to my amazement, it blew off! It landed on the dock, motor first. I have a Whaler as well and rarely tie it down when we are not traveling. I sure will tie it down in the future. Mine was in the water tied to our starboard side. It handled the winds just fine.

 

[Cat Daddy]

It's pretty "sporty" here in Key West also. I moved to a mooring ball yesterday, sure glad it wasn't today. Been a steady 30+ all day swinging from SW to N, saw 40 once. A squall just before daybreak probably had 50+. Been a very interesting day listening to the VHF. Helicopter rescue 35 miles NW of Key West with sailboat adrift, derelict boat fouls another boats anchor line and wraps around the keel requiring a tow to the mooring field. Worst was the report of an infant in the water at 7 mile bridge. They canceled the alert 15 minutes later, hopefully all ended well. The Coast Guard doesn't give much follow up info.

Rafe

 

[psneeld]

Tied up in St Mary's, Ga...was going to leave but the forecast of an hour or so of 45 to 50 knot winds with a half day or 25-30 knot winds convinced me to stay another day at a $43 a day marina.


Was going to anchor out last night but the forecast broke my 25 knot rule.

Never seemed to get that bad...but the marina I picked was well shielded from W-NW winds. Heard some howling in the sailboat rigging but never felt above 20 knots here....but as I said, well shielded.

 

[motion30]

Same in Islamorada. Makes me glad i bought an oversize mantas hook have not moved an inch

 

[oscar]

Air flowing from high to low pressure..... rapidly.

 

[gwkiwi]

All we had was a 60' cat break free from its mooring near Peanut Is and land on the beach, they were still trying to pull it off late this afternoon.
A boat at our marina on Cypress Island lost its bimini but otherwise really wasn't that bad, lucky I guess.....

 

[FF]

Do a poll on the beached boats.

Anchors or watch fobs ??

 

[Capt.Bill11]

That's pretty common in Sarasota. Ever good blow there seems to be a boat or two blown up on the shore some where in the bay.

In many cases they come from the Sailing Squadron or the mooring/anchoring field by Marina Jack's.

 

[Ski in NC]

I was in Key West a few years ago and was anchored out. Knew a blow was coming, so treated myself and my girl to a couple expensive nights on the A and B dock. That first night the wind was around 40 out of the N. The VHF was going nuts all night with reports of boats dragging. In the morning there were several boats, mostly blowboats, beached or snagged up tight to other boats.

I found anchoring in the keys a challenge. Often it is a layer of eel snot on top of flat cap rock. You think you have a bite, but pull on it in reverse and it digs down to the cap rock and then slides along that. Only stops if it finds a hole or a ledge. Not sure the type of anchor matters there. It's the only place I had trouble.

 

[motion30]

you have to remember in Key West there are a lot of marginal boats with junk for anchoring gear. So it's hard to know exact situation. I was just there for 5 weeks anchored outside the harbor and never moved an inch