Our sanitation hose technicians were aboard working on Saturday and Julie mentioned 8-12" of rain. They said if that happens these docks will be underwater and it will be a couple days. They left us their tall rubber boots, but asked us to drop them off with the dock master should we decide to leave the boat.
So after we decided to leave the boat, this is what we saw almost immediately on the TV upon checking in to our hotel room.
Those technicians had called it correctly and we are glad we left the boat. Here is a view of the marina on a normal day from their website. We are on the wall of the canal near the upper right of this photo, just before the entrance to the basin and covered slips on the basin on the lower part of the photo.
Here is what it looks like today. This morning when I came here to check on the boat the cars at the right of the photos were about half underwater. I could not take the same route to the marina we had used yesterday as some roads were underwater. There were also a number of traffic lights out on the way. This is the marina parking lot on the right and our boat is near the far end of the face dock. At least we can see she is still floating!
When we woke up this morning we found a posting on the Marine Trawler Owners Association (MTOA) site from another member who was on board at the marina so we immediately knew the marina docks were underwater. I was also able to contact a Trawler Forum member I met earlier in the week who was still aboard. A couple good examples of modern technology as both individuals were able to give us information throughout the day. They were giving us information from "inside" and we were able to update them from our view from the "outside". Late in the day it was reported the docks were now above water and walkable but here is the road to the marina. The docks may be dry but a good 4WD would be needed to get in and out...not our rental car. Note the stalled car being passed by the 4WD. We didn't want to be another stalled car so we turned around.
And yet another online resource, the Salty Southeast Cruisers Net, reports Notices to Mariners. Here is one that reports the lock just north of us and the bridge just south of us are closed. Sort of trapped huh?
And a special thanks to Howard on M/V Magic from Trawler Forum for the late afternoon pictures showing Sum Escape all well. Thanks for riding out the storm on the dock and giving the play by play Howard!Currently the flood warning expires at 8:15 AM and the gale warning is until 10:00 AM. We are thankful that our evacuation was only two nights, not three weeks like it was in 2013!
On Monday morning we were able to get back to the marina by the regular route instead of the "high road" we had to take the last two days. We saw 8 cars still abandoned near flooded areas. Once we arrived, we saw one flooded out car being towed from the marina and there are others awaiting a tow. The only damage we could find to our boat was a broken in half fender board. I guess the 2x4's I used should have been 2x6!! And someone had reset our fenders to protect the side of the boat after the fender board broke. So the marina did have personnel monitoring things....thank you Atlantic Yacht Basin. We are so glad we left for the hotel on Saturday.
So now we will monitor all available sources to assess just when we will leave. Of course this is after we will get the repairs finished. We will review reports and not leave until we get some confidence in transiting the ICW after all the storm damage, figure out which marinas and anchorages are still viable, and then after the bridge opens, resume our migration south. We hope to spend a little time in New Bern, NC, cruise the St John and be in the Jacksonville area by the weekend before Thanksgiving so we can fly to Michigan to spend some time with family for Thanksgiving.
This is of course a "rigid plan subject to infinite revision"...we will go with the flow and work things out as we go. Thanks for following our blog.
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