Editors Note: As we are all aware, a second hurricane hit Florida after Helene. This story was received prior to the second hurricane (Milton) The author is okay, so I am adding some photos and brief news about Milton on the end of the story.
As Jayson and I work on the 90 foot motor yacht that he is captain of our conversation goes to just shy of two years prior the issues that we had with Hurricane Ian and the damage that it caused to the marina and most of the boats in it. Why are we talking about this? Because there is a depression in the gulf moving our way. All the weather reports are saying that it is not going to be that bad, but then again they said the same thing about Ian. Jayson and I get the big girl all tucked in by taking down the sun-shades, bringing in all the chairs, checking all the dock lines and fenders. You know all the normal stuff. Then we move to his boat and then mine. Ya taking down the head sail again just incase.
As we walk around we see others doing the same thing and talk with them about how bad we think it might be and asking us to help with lines, taking down sails and placement of fenders. While walking around we also took a count of how many people were staying on their boats and who was not going to be around.
Thursday the 26th rolled around and I wake up to my AC shutting off, great I still had 10 minutes tell my alarm went off. I got dressed and stepped out on deck and saw that the dock was about half a foot under water. Guess I better unplug from the pedestal and stow the cord. Glad I got my battery situation under control.
Through out the day the wind was blowing around 30 to 40 knots with gusts up to around 60. About mid-day I decided to take a nap, why is it that when the boat is rocking I always sleep really good? I figured just like with horses all the fun stuff was going to happen at why am I away o’clock. I was not wrong.
The boating community never ceases to amaze me. At around midnight is when the first call came in over the radio net (yes we do that in this marina when something happens). A 46 foot steel Schooner that took out about a dozen boats when it broke free in Ian was on top of the dock. I guess the surge came in more that we expected. I get in my Toyota to goto the other side of the marina to help and pick up two other guys on the way. As we get to U dock reality hit, the water was better than waist deep. “Great” just what I want to do, walk through waist deep water in the middle of the night. As we are walking through the water down the dock we see four other guys down on the T head working their buts off. After about half an hour we get the lines freed up and the boat off the piling. Still have no idea how we did it, but we did. As get back to the soggy, ok muddy shoreline Stacy says that there is a sailboat that looks like it is in trouble a couple docks up. Well hell we’re already out and wet lets go take a look. While walking over there we adjust lines on a couple other boats that are too tight. We find the sail boat and it turns out that there is someone on it already squaring things up. We give him a hand and then everyone departs to their own boats to wash up and dry off.
Around four in the morning the radio goes off again letting us know of another boat that is hung up on a piling, off we go again. This one was interesting because L dock was litorly coming apart before our eyes. Steve was on his boat on L dock and wanting to help but the stationary dock was floating. Wait there is four or five feet of surge over the docks, why can we see all the 2×6’s? oh! They are floating, hey Steve, stay on your boat man not a good time to go swimming! Steve being the crazy guy he is and the captain of the boat on the T-head braved the elements to get to the end of the dock to see if they could figure out a way to keep the 38 foot center console to stay on its lift while we tried to figure out how to get the pontoon boat off the piling. I heard Gary call on the VHF asking if we could use another hand,” yes, come on down, bring coffee. Wait do you have a digging bar in your truck?” It turns out he did, and said he is on his way. We use the bar to get the boat off the piling and check in with Steve and the Captain working on the center console on the lift. They let us know that they were able to do something (no idea what) and that they were both on their boats and safe. Again everyone went back to their boats to wash u and dry off to be ready for the next one.
In the afternoon the water was going down and only about ankle deep. Everyone was talking about the storm and happy that it had past. As they talked people would ask if they were ok and if there was anything they could do to help those that needed it. We are blessed here to have Cap Clark a retired US Coast Guard Captain, he was instrumental in organizing everyone and everything during the thick of it for both Helene and Ian. I wanted to share what we wrote the day after.
Facebook post from Captain Clark after the storm
Well the Burnt Store Marina boat family stepped up to a new level today during hurricane Helene. These men and women constantly amaze me. The winds came, the rains came and most damaging, the tidal surge came and came and came. At the writing of this post, we had approximately 5.5 ft over our normal high tide. This creates quite an issue for a Marina that’s less than 9ft above sea level. So you can imagine 45-65 mph wind gusts off and on for 14 hrs pushing a total tidal surge of 7.75ft into the marina can create a real danger to everyone and to be honest, a real big mess of things too. We had boats break loose, lines snapped, docks went under water, boats on the docks that were under water, boats floating on lifts and folks stuck on their boats.
These residents just all jumped in to help one another and those that aren’t here to care for their vessels. I love these people so much. Those of you that jumped in to help others and our marina are just awesome.
You all know who you are and I just want to thank all of you. Another thing to mention, the ladies of the marina are bad asses. I had to get that out of the way. Most people puke , complain of sea sickness or being uncomfortable when their house is being tossed around at sea, well not our ladies, they still cooked dinners and took care of the needs of others without a complaint. You’re amazing women.
It looks like the winds will slow in the next few hours and the tide will subside. When the sun comes up our marina management team will get a good assessment of the damage, future concerns and then get after it. We’re a pretty tough bunch, we chose this lifestyle over every other knowing there are hardships along the way. I don’t know one sailor, motor captain or staff member here that wouldn’t fight for what we have here. That friends is what our lives are about. Helping each other in living the Mariners life together here at Burnt Store Marina and in our travels.
This from the Weather Channel: Following Hurricane Helene’s devestating strike in Florida’s Big Bend. Milton struck two weeks later bringing catastrophic rainfall flooding, 100 mph gusts, a tornado outbreak and storm surge to Florida’s peninsula. The storm killed multiple people and broke numerous meteorological records.
Here are a few notable factoids from Milton: - Highest rainfall total: St. Petersburg, Florida: 18.87 inches, Highest wind gust: 105 mph in Egmont Channel, Florida, Highest known storm surge: 5-6 feet in various spots in southwest Florida include Naples and Fort Myers. This is likely underestimated and numbers are likely higher in Sarasota or Charlotte Counties. , Milton was this season’s 5th Gulf Coast hurricane landfall. , Milton was Florida’s 3rd hurricane landfall this season , 126 tornado warnings issued. This is the highest number of tornado warnings issued in Florida in one day. , Here’s the storm formation, intensity and track history for Milton: Tropical Depression Fourteen formed on the morning of Oct. 5 in the southwest Gulf of Mexico and shortly thereafter was deemed Tropical Storm Milton., The storm then rapidly intensified into Hurricane Milton about 24 hours later at 1 p.m. CDT on Oct. 6. , the next day, Milton underwent another incredible round of rapid intensification. Winds increased from 90 mph at 1 a.m. CDT on Oct. 7 to 180 mph just 15 hours later at 4 p.m. CDT.
Milton Pictures
