Marina Eviction in advance of Irma

[bigthaw]

Originally Posted by David Hughes

I happen to live in Atlanta and keep my boat near Ft Myers. I'm not going to either fly or drive into south Florida this week to move the boat. I have no assurance I could locate a safe anchorage or a safer marina. That hurricane path means no point in going to east coast Florida, anywhere west coast Florida, nor even Alabama/ Mississippi, etc. Any of those might be as bad or worse than my home marina. We are 5 days out and the National Hurricane Center says their guess 5 days out averages 225 miles off target. I guess one could try to go up Mobile Bay and into the Tenn-Tom waterway.

I'm in a modern marina in Cape Coral with 2 luxury condo towers and a Westin hotel on 2 sides, with mangroves on another side and no fetch. I'm betting my own slip, with lots of extra lines put on by very experienced folks is the best solution. If not, that's what insurance is for. I'm not going to fret, but I'm certainly watching with great interest.

Quite agree David, drove around your marina 3 weeks ago...the only issue there might be is the storm surge on top of xtra hi tide...but that's going to be anywhere...insurance is really the key...
Very unwise to move a boat if it is in a secure place....no way to determine exactly where a storm is going to go until its too late to move...
I hope all fair well...

[menzies]

Originally Posted by Tom.B

And finally... while the statues in many states say you might not have to leave, it doesn't say that the marina has any obligation to renew you lease after the storm is gone either.

Those would be the marinas no longer in business.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by ksanders

Thans guys...

I've never been to Florida. Certainly never boated there.

I was just thinking, that if you lived there you should have a plan. Something thought out in advance. Arrangments made in advance. A place to hide picked out in advance.

Thats just the prepper in me...

We have a plan. We have a home built and then modified to Miami/Dade standards plus. We have food. We have generators. We have the boats tucked safely away in a nice secluded area with an excellent dock. We even have RIB's in our garages. We also have access to Condos that are not in an evacuation zone and our office which isn't. We have a boat docked at the condos. We have each of our closest friends/family with plans and meeting tomorrow morning to confirm them all with all options. We will all work together for safety and protection. Also reminders of what to do, where to go in the house, how to protect oneself. Just because the plan doesn't seem like the one you'd make, doesn't mean it isn't a plan.

The only remaining things we have to do is move all outdoor furniture inside, which won't take long. Then at some point closer decide exactly which home we want to all be in.

We have friends who are yacht managers and have all the boats they manage secured and have hurricane windows, doors, and roof for their homes. Also, a sister with a home a little west of them.

There is no perfect plan. I can certainly see why it would seem illogical to someone living where you do. Huge areas there with few people and few boats.

Evacuation is done only for surge, not for wind. In the Keys all area is low so evacuation areas. All of Monroe county is an evacuation zone. Only relatively small parts of Miami/Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are. If everyone tried to evacuate you would have thousands stranded on the highways. You can't evacuate 7 million people so that's not what you plan.

Hurricane plans really are something you prepare for well in advance and then as one approaches you just choose from among your options you planned.

Just heard a good quote. "You hide from the wind, run from the water." That's our plan. Water wise we'll be safe and we'll hide from the wind.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by menzies

Those would be the marinas no longer in business.

That from Menzies who is an excellent example of prepared. His location is about as good as one could find.

[menzies]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DrOqRQQ9mg

[McGillicuddy]

How about this? I am in a small shipyard up a creek in St. Petersburg having some work done. They currently have about 10 boats on the hard and two boats on a small floating finger pier. I am one of the boats on the finger pier. They tell me that they expect to finish the work on my boat on Thursday and that I will have to leave when done. I was told that if I stay through the hurricane I will have to pay a lump sum $1200. I don't currently pay for dockage as its presumably covered in the repair cost. They only charge me for power. My dock neighbor however is charged $2 per foot per day. At that rate I would be paying $104 per day.
Assuming they do finish on Thursday by close of business I will have no option but to stay because there will be no safe location that I know of that I can get to on Friday.
I heard also that they were going to start tomorrow to put the boats on the hard that can float back in the water and tell owners to come get them. The area has flooded in the past and boats have floated off the jack stands. The owner told me today that I am safer at the dock than I would be on the hard.
A fine predicament I must say.

[BruceK]

Some of your marinas sound a little shy on good customer relations.
I`m wondering what obligation or duty the marina has to you and your boat if they tell you to leave as per the Agreement you made with them, and you don`t. I understand they can do things with the boat and charge you for it, so if they have that right(?obligation) they may have a continuing obligation to you. But, I`m wondering if the Agreements commonly make some provision about that.

[FF]

The problems come when even after super prep at a marina the storm surge gets over the piling height.

15+ ft of extra water is beyond most pilings ,docks and boats float off together.

There is no great solution , but anchoring above the storm surge in a creek or river with SOFT sides , sand or muck no rip rap, where it will be less damaging to be blown ashore and easier to be pulled off would be my choice if cruising..

The FL bridges stop opening with over 35 mph winds or long lines of traffic evacuating , so find your spot early sounds like the best plan .

LUCY is at out dock in Ortona , so our biggest fear is not the breeze or the water height , unless the berm on Lake O blows out again.

Just to the East of our location is a long canal that would be perfect (mostly sand sided) and probably 3/4 mile long .It ends in a pond that has a sand bottom and sides locally called Lolypop as that is what it looks like on a chart.

About 30-40 ft deep could also be a choice.

Good luck to all,,