Hurricane Irma

Mermaid said:

My 58' Hatteras is floating, but missing swim platform, and aft spray rail. She is chewed up the entire port side. Took out the finger pier and tangoed with the boat next door afterwards. She should be repairable, but currently, she is not habitable. The marina, Dinner Key Marina in Miami, was pretty much destroyed. I don't know where we will ultimately go. I'm a liveaboard.

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Sorry.

HopCar said:

Possum sank. I got over there this afternoon. Water was up to the pilot house windows. Already talked to a salvage guy who is a friend. I'm first on the list when he can move on the river. There appear to be hundreds of boats spider webbed into the river blocking it completely.

Maybe it's time for me to buy an old man's boat, you know, like the rest of you have.?

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So very sorry Parks! Our hearts are broken for you and all others with damage or loss from Irma......and Harvey too.....

I keep my boat at Ft Myers Yacht basin. A day of westerly wind pushed the water out of the river. I was sitting on the bottom for six or nine hours. The boat next to me was tied a little too close to the fixed concrete dock, and his pulpit ended up under the dock. When the wind shifted and pushed water back up the river, his pulpit stayed under the dock. My neighbor who stayed during the storm said the stuck boat's stern was 2' out of the water before the concrete failed. Whoever built that pulpit should use this for advertising as it's, for the most part, unscathed.

The concrete is a 40' post tension panel. The boat is a 40 something East Bay.

Conall

Good grief! Yes that's one strong pulpit.

How much surge did y'all get over normal water levels? Seems like the "negative" surge is what caught lots of folks by surprise?

Benthic2 said:

Did you home survive Andrew ?

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I survived Andrew. One word, MONTANA!

Fort McAllister Marina during Irma.

Fort McAllister Marina during Irma.

Thought I was going to loose my MS390. Boat in front of me was totaled. I came out without a scratch. I had to scramble out to secure new bow lines as you can plainly see the dock breaking up where I had her tied.

Anyone here have any info on Marathon Florida? I am not sure when I can get to my house in Key Colony Beach (Marathon)

We have power at my house in Homestead but no power at the farm in the Redlands. I had moved my boat to the farm and have no damage to the boat. I have been able to use the gas in the boat to run the generators. Fuel is slowly being restocked here in Homestead.

Sat imagery post storm that includes Marathon. Zoom in to find your place.

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/irma/index.html

LouT

"I read 12 knots, 27 knots, am I the only one who is not in hurry? At 7 knots "

Living in Miami and watching Irma move at 7 knots I learned I never want a boat that don't go faster than that. It was excruciating keeping track of this damn storm after it left Cuba an waiting for it to make landfall some place in Florida. Many years ago we were in Blackpoint in the Exumas and a hurricane was headed out way, we ran before it at 20 knots for over 12 hours, at 7 knots we might not have made it. Speed rules except when you want to go slow!

Bigsfish said:

LouT

"I read 12 knots, 27 knots, am I the only one who is not in hurry? At 7 knots "

Living in Miami and watching Irma move at 7 knots I learned I never want a boat that don't go faster than that. It was excruciating keeping track of this damn storm after it left Cuba an waiting for it to make landfall some place in Florida. Many years ago we were in Blackpoint in the Exumas and a hurricane was headed out way, we ran before it at 20 knots for over 12 hours, at 7 knots we might not have made it. Speed rules except when you want to go slow!

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So right, Big Fish. Well said.... I could have written the same post. Excruciating is the word.

Re Marathon: Just this morning I received a message from a fellow manatee owner who's fine vessel and home was seen capsized and sunk in a Marathon canal. Here's the sat photo.

Sad to lose a nice boat.

Looks like my house in Marathon survived the storm without any real issue. There are many boats sunk around the general area. As soon as the power is restored, Key Colony Beach will return to somewhat normal.

Wishing everyone else the best of luck. Sorry to see all the boats and homes that were lost.

Billy

BandB said:

Wifey B: Or the oldest young man?

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Let's just say he matured early.

Marty.......................

I really just can't imagine what you guys are going through with boats lost or heavily damaged. We live aboard and simply love our home. I am not sure what I would feel if I found it gone one day. All I can say is Keep the faith, this will all come out in the end.

Marty....................

Only in Florida...

Nun with chainsaw helps clear downed trees after Hurricane Irma | Miami Herald

So sad Larry. Never met Cool Beans owners but I used many of the upgrade ideas Fat Chance owners published. Looks like they suffered from the wind draining the canal, capsizing and then flooding when the winds reversed. That's one possiblity that I would have never expected and will have to be added to storm preps.
So happy to hear Bucky made it okay with only minor scrapes.

Bill

Sad to see the loss of nice boats. Our thoughts go out to all of you -

mike

Ski in NC said:

Sat imagery post storm that includes Marathon. Zoom in to find your place.

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/irma/index.html

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Ski,
Thanks for posting this fascinating link.

Yes, Much of SW Florida & Keys can be viewed after Irma blew through. Just be patient and allow the screen to populate, then simply zoom in for the grim details.

It's so sad for so many.

Interesting piece of looting!

News from Janice

Wifey B:

Just got this from another party but passing it on.

Boat is filthy from leaves and broken branches... I had pulled myself partially into the mangroves. Skipper and I are tiptop though tired. We seem to require more time to recover from our efforts.

Fortunately we have that.

The property/city had power though of course so too does Seaweed. My solar will not keep up with the power required by an air conditioner so it is good to have the electric cord.

I also have months of food aboard (I preserve meats in glass canning jars) so am all set. Mich of the mainland is without power though. 7,000,000 people in Florida have no electricity.

Having a boat is a wonderful thing. She is shelter, safety and comfort. I am truly blessed.

An article will be coming on the preliminaries and aftermath.

Life is wonderful. My Seaweed and I are fine.​

Incredible woman and I'm so relieved.

Yea Janice! Tough, intrepid woman right there.

Does anyone have any info about Ocean Reef? I have a few friends there and haven't heard anything. I would imagine they hit a bad hit.

Sat imagery post storm that includes Marathon. Zoom in to find your place.

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/irma/index.html

Heartbreaking.
Wonder why there is a gap in pics where the eye crossed the keys?

Wow, they fixed it! Gap is gone. Oh man.

Back up and running today...lost power Sunday afternoon...just got it back. Did I miss anything while I was away? lol...

the link to the satelite photo just comes up as a map for me, no sat. photo.....any suggestions ?


Nevermind........I got it now.

Benthic2 said:

the link to the satelite photo just comes up as a map for me, no sat. photo.....any suggestions ?

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zoom down to the keys

Click the little icon top right and change from street view to sat.

BTW, it only covers certain areas of FL in detail.

It's very accurate but you really can't zoom in far enough to see the damage to the boat but it's the best out there now.

Bigsfish said:

Does anyone have any info about Ocean Reef? I have a few friends there and haven't heard anything. I would imagine they hit a bad hit.

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No direct info on Ocean Reef but I am very close. I think I must be less than ten miles away. The wind gust here at my house looked to be somewhere around 80 mph. Very minor damage. There was no flooding. There is a canal that was running inland very near my house. It was a bit out of it's banks but not too much. I am very near Turkey Point power plant.

What ever storm surge effected me should have been a bit worse at Ocean Reef. How much, I don't know. My best guess is that the wind there was around the same or a bit higher.

My best "guess" is that they survived the storm without major issue.

I am going to Marathon in the morning to check on my house there. From the sat photos it looks like it is more or less OK. The pool is very black looking in the photo and a few roof tiles look like they are missing. I will know tomorrow if there was any rising water that got in the house.

Best of luck to everyone for a speedy recovery. Hurricanes are just a fact of life here in south Florida. I think overall we were very lucky in some ways, even in the keys the damage is less than I expected.