Wifey B: Just out of curiosity and listening to a lot of budgeting and forecasting data and my head needing an escape, I decided to look back at the two times we came home during snowbird season.
First was September 2015. We had been to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket (my favorite named city), and Boston that summer. Then we went to a celebration of a wedding in Newport, RI. The couple had been wed in a small wedding at our home, gone on their honeymoon and then allowed his parents to go wild with all they wanted which meant something like a thousand people at the nicest facility and oh wow to it all. I'd never seen anything like it. The couple enjoyed it, especially Maria knowing her mother in law and father in law were doing it for her and her husband. Our wedding was in Vegas and three guests. So then we left for home.
9/14-Newport to Port Washington-167 nm
9/16-Port Washington to NYC 22 nm
9/19-NYC to Cape May-160 nm
9/21-Cape May to Chesapeake City-66 nm
9/22-Chesapeake City to Annapolis-52 nm
9/24-Annapolis to St. Michaels-28 nm
9/25-St. Michaels to Portsmouth-134 nm
9/26-Portsmouth to Bellhaven-115 nm
9/27-Bellhaven to New Bern-85 nm
9/28-New Bern to Morehead City-40 nm
9/30-Morehead City to Bald Head Island-157 nm
10/1-Bald Head Island to Myrtle Beach-46 nm
10/6-Myrtle Beach to Georgetown-42 nm
10/7 and 10/8-Georgetown to Fort Lauderdale 470 nm.
Now this brings back memories. Why the long run home this time? Well, We'd driven to Charlotte to the orphanage as a side trip and couldn't make it back to Myrtle Beach for days. This was the year of record rainfall for SC. 21.5 inches recorded near Charleston, 23.5 in Georgetown, 27 in Mt. Pleasant. Roads closed and all this was without a hurricane and before Joaquin ever even came close. So, we were talking to Captain Bill who frequents here and he made the long trip home from Charleston a day ahead and told us conditions. Joaquin curved out to sea but an extratropical system picked up and dropped it's moisture.
So much for being north of hurricane territory.
Then in 2018, we'd cruised from Fort Lauderdale to Boston in April and May and to Nova Scotia and around to Montreal and then back to NYC in June to August. September 2, we flew back to the boat in NYC. Our plans were to come down the coast quickly and go to Bermuda. Unfortunately, Hurricane Florence made that seem unwise. So, here was our trip home.
9/5-NY to Ocean City-180 nm.
9/6 and 9/7-Ocean City to Hilton Head-604 nm
9/8-Hilton Head to St. Augustine-160 nm.
9/10-St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale-270 nm.
Hilton Head made us promise we were just staying one day. By the time we hit St. Augustine, we became anxious to get home as Florence was now predicted to hit SC and NC. As soon as possible after Florence we drove to the area it had hit and did all we could to help. We had a lot of employees in the areas it hit.
Our SC family actually was with us and stayed with us in Fort Lauderdale until Florence cleared.
Everyone warns us of hurricanes living in Fort Lauderdale but the devastation the last few years has been on the Gulf and Northern FL to the Carolinas.
It's ironic that our two trips south that time of year have been impacted by storms but not in the way most people expect. Rather than leaving home, in both cases, the storms have driven us home. :lol:
