Another eventful month! Where to begin.... So let's start with Labor day weekend... We finally should have Frankenstein (the enginge) completed and ready to go for our 1st shake down cruise however, due to another delay with the mechanic, this was not possible and the trip that we had with friends for that weekend left without us. So dishartening and upsetting for us as we keep getting delay after delay. Additionally, we had a power cord fail on us so off to west marine on a holiday weekend we went to get parts needed to remove the burnt plug and put a new one on. Andy also made some cable ends with his new spify cable crimper and so we start to work on getting prepped to finish off some additional projects that are needed for us to be able to get off the dock and get going.
We did finally have enough boat work and needed off the boat. We new where generally speaking our friends were so we packed up and off in the dingy we went... We found them and had a great day on the beach with them and then enjoying a meal on Viscaya for the day. We then come back and take the puppies for a play at the beach.
We get some items in that we ordered a while ago and were on back order from Ray Maine. So we get Brad with Paradise Yachts our to install the new wind sensor and climb the mast to get it installed.
We finally get the generator running this month as well. Hooray!! We finally have both a working genrator and Frankenstein is back to life! We have plans to sail to Sarasota with some friends in Oct so wish us luck this will all be ok and we can go....
Sept 26th ~ What in God's green earth is happening here... Hurricane Helene is coming for a visit and is slated for a direct or new direct hit to Tampa Bay. Not good boo! She needs to go somewhere else... We had record water surge of 10 ft in the intercoastal. The marina was less than a foot from coming over the pilings. There is water everywhere and there is no way that you can even get to the marina. We finally make it there to check on things and there is just mass flooding and devastion everywhere. The dock is taking on water and water has come up to the parking lot and crested over the walls and up to the steps that lead to coachman park. Park of the ramps are under water as well. All we can do is hope for the best and there we will fair ok. The boats are all bouncing and there boats that broke loose during the storm and just bouncing out there. I am so glad that we didn't stay on the boat like we normal do. Because this was to a very near direct his and predicted storm surge we decided to just stay at the RV and hope that we don't get flooded there either.
We get back to the boat once the water has receided and the marina is accessible again, we intially do an inspection and all seems ok.... but we can't do a complete inspection of everything as it will take time but upon 1st look, she's still floating. We can hopefully bring the portable coolers back that we took off and get the boat back into working order. We did notice at 1st some small items like some gel coat scratches, some torn canvas and one of the aft chaft grards that were screwed into the hull was completly torn off as well as the engine hoist was bent and came off it's holding points but overall everything apears to be ok....
We take the dinghy out and the devastation is beyond anything we have seen personally before. We attempt to do our part to help people get their boats moved and pick up debris where we can. Restaurants are closed and anything on clearwater beach that was under water is now closed and no ETA for when they will allow people to come back yet alone start the repairs and then.....
10 days later it happens again.... stay tunded for October updates to see what happens
