As of now Isaac is well out into the Gulf of Mexico and heading for the New Orleans area…which I am sure makes everyone happy up there. Around here it’s sunny but still very windy. High tide was a couple of hours ago and the water came to within a foot of the top of the docks. Conditions should continue to improve as the day wears on but we might get a squall or two from the back end of the storm.
I haven’t heard of any damage reports yet and if you use the local Key West newspaper for your news, they shut down until tomorrow. So much for keeping the public informed. It appears Miami to West Palm got the worst of it with 70,000 people currently without electricity.
Here at the marina it looks in good shape. A sailboat across the dock from me had a halyard break loose and it flew over and entangled itself in the blades of the air generator on the rear mast of the ketch next to it. It’s just a matter of time before something breaks off. Another large sailboat lost the tie downs to it’s jib and now a very expensive sail is flapping in the breeze like a flag and will be tattered junk by tomorrow.
As for the Fritter, everything is ok. I had water in the bilge, about 20 gallons or so and got it all out. Everything is damp and mildewy now so it will need some bleaching soon. All the lines held and no damage the I can find so far.
This whole ordeal could have been much worse for us in the Keys. This storm was a minor one compared to real hurricanes. Had it not been broken up over the mountains in Cuba we may have had a real disaster here. I doubt that all that I did on the Fritter would have been sufficient to survive a real storm.
The last week and particularly the past weekend was expensive and stressful. There was no fear, I wasn’t worried about anything like that, it was more worry over protecting the Fritter and avoiding any liability should she have broken loose and damaged somebody else’s property. The whole thing may have sounded exciting to you Fritter readers out there and it made some great blog fodder, (got a nice spike in traffic), but it wasn’t fun by any means and now has me rethinking the whole boat living idea. I’m tired, still got some cleaning up to do, and I had to spend money on things that I would have rather not have had to spend on. More on all this in a few days after things have calmed down.
For now, everything is good. Thanks again for all the support from you Fritter fans out there.
Capt. Fritter
as the average person who ‘dreams’ of living on a boat… had no idea of all the complications.
i can see now that it is expensive in ways not even imagined.
you’re already feeling that old ‘tied down’ (no pun intended) to something thing aren’t you?
i keep looking at my little house here, wondering whether to let it go… (and that’s with no hurricanes! … altho the requisite tornadoes are a given.) this year i had damage from two small ones and the upped insurance pmts for the area as aftermath. so…. a quandary.
Yeah, I drove a quandary once. Got lousy gas mileage and the steering always pulled to the left.
C. F.
Glad you and the Fritter came through physically OK. Now to deal with the mental damage and deciding what’s next about that.
Oh, I had mental damage long before any hurricane hit me.
C. F.