rgano
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2007
- Messages
- 5,000
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- FROLIC
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 30 Pilot II since 2015. GB-42 1986-2015. Former Unlimited Tonnage Master
For years I have passed boats stranded in lifts where power to or even the dock to the boat was destroyed....then some remained even longer because the boat was up high in the shed and couldn't be extracted easily I guess because of lift damage.
Then I have searched for several boats that floated free of lifts because they weren't high enough.
Tough call what to do.
We are not going to rely on my "expert" storm surge forecasting for the next significant storm surge - too much anxiety. I'll just move the boat so we can concentrate on other things, like the house. The boat could get stuck being in the water for a while after a future storm, like it did for a year and a half after Michael destroyed the previous boat shed/lift. However, the new shed is many times more resistant to storm damage, and even if I have to lug a 220-volt generator down the pier in a jon boat, I think I can recover the boat to the lift fairly soon after storm passage. Leaving it in the lift to possibly destroy/damage BOTH boat and lift won't happen anymore.
I received this from one of our members in Pensacola:
Hi Rich,
Not as bad as yours a couple of years ago. 50% of the houses on our street were flooded. Almost all of the vehicles were lost (those built on stilts didn’t take the vehicles to high ground.). The water was not too bad at 7 AM, but by 11 it had come up to almost the same level as during IVAN.
We are fine—on a 12’ mound. Truck and RV were high enough—had a little water in the garage, but we had all tools off the floor. The C Dory 25 was on its trailer, and floated with the trailer attached. I had run about 300 foot (round trip) bow line to a large pine and cinched tight. Two stern lines to big trees on each side about at 45*, so the boat didn’t move much. She was headed almost dead into the worst wind as the water came up. We seem to have the only functioning whole house generator—I think people put them in, and then didn’t think about flooding. Ours is over 15’ above mean high water. We probably lost one irrigation pump (the one I could see from the house was OK)—probably lost set of a pool pumps. Minor other issues—We are very tired. We have 6 people staying in the house—maybe 3 to 4 more tomorrow. No rental cars available, no hotels rooms available, no RV sights available. For some it is grim…as all of these storms can be. This morning when we were cleaning the road of debris with my 4 x 4, we found a Jon boat—not one from our neighborhood. Mid day a CG chopper was flying low and slow, SAR was on the street in mass. Chopper hovered for about 20 minutes over one spot at about 50. We think they found the body of a young man who apparently went to tie the family pontoon boat better. They had lost the dock, (all docks are lost—as usual—on the bay side of the street—we are on the bayou side—no dock damage.).
No cable or internet—I can get out on Verizon MiFi hot spot in the evenings. So I didn’t see the damage. I do. Have on the air TV, but too busy and tired to watch it.
Thanks for thinking of us.