New boat owners Faced with Second

Hurricane within a month!!

By Don Widmayer, AP

Less than one week after bringing Split Decision back to its home on Hutchinson Island after surviving Hurricane Frances, Jann and I decided that it was time to move the boat back to the hurricane hole. Hurricane Jeanne, predicted to head north and out into the Atlantic, made a loop and decided to head straight for Florida. The path of the storm was following that of hurricane Frances, but the new storm was going to be stronger. 

We left our dock (N 27 16.066 W 080 12.562) at 1313 on September 24, 2004 heading for Kitchings Cove, which is located on the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, approximately 8 miles west of the ocean. It was a warm day with partly cloudy skies with a temperature in the low 80’s. There was a slight breeze out of the east at about 15 knots. We motored into the Indian River Lagoon, and while waiting for the drawbridge at the Jensen Beach Causeway to open, we ate lunch and just floated around enjoying a wonderful day on the water. 

The drawbridge began to open at 1400 and we put the engines into gear to move forward. There was a problem. The starboard engine shut off. I restarted the engine and as soon as I placed it in gear, the engine shut off. After unsuccessful attempts to get it to run, we motored under the drawbridge on the port engine. We didn’t feel secure motoring all the way to Kitchings Cove on one engine, so after clearing the bridge and moving out of the channel, we dropped the hook to investigate the problem. On the way back to the cockpit area from the bow of the boat, I slipped and fell spraining my ankle slightly. I could still walk, but it hurt a little bit. This was upsetting to both of us. With a hurricane expected to hit tomorrow, one engine not working and now a sprained ankle, we were wondering whether this was a really bad omen of things to come. Once anchored, Jann located the problem. The line on the dingy, which was on the trampoline had vibrated off the boat and into the water. It was just long enough to become entangled around the prop of the starboard engine. After loosening the line from the dinghy end, I pulled up the engine and tried to untangle it, but to no avail. I needed to get into the water and swim under the boat and free the prop. I jumped in, and with a knife and pliers, I was able to free the prop within ten minutes. When I was back on board, we started the engines and checked them out. Joy filled our hearts when everything appeared to be working flawlessly. After pulling up the anchor, on we went to continue our journey to Kitchings Cove.

We arrived at our hurricane hole (N 27 15.358 W 080 19.476) at approximately 1700 and found the boat from before, already tied up in the creek ahead of us. The Captain had already secured his boat and couldn’t let us by him. The plan to secure our boat would mean blocking him in. After securing our boat, the Captain of the other vessel came over, checked out our lines and said that he would only be staying until the winds had subsided and not a minute more. He would not be able to leave unless he cut our lines. We decided right then and there that we had to stay with our boat this time. After making this decision, we had to get back to the house, prepare it and get what ever provisions we needed. We left the boat at 1905 headed for the dock at Tarpon Bay, and raced for home. Based on the current track of the storm, we were able to stay at home Friday night and return to the boat on Saturday before the weather intensified.

On Saturday, September 25^th, Jann and I drove back to Tarpon Bay dock with our provisions and after loading the dingy, we headed for our boat at 1130. Once we arrived, we checked all the lines and secured the dingy to the stern of the boat between the two hulls. We secured the outboard motor to the stern rail of the boat. Jann put away all the provisions. We cleaned up a little and by 1330, we were all settled in and ready for the big blow.

We secured the boat a little differently than we did before the first storm. We secured a line to the cleat on the boat. I took the line to shore and located a sturdy mangrove root, ran the line around the base of the mangrove near the water and back to the cleat. We did this on all four points of the boat. (It is a 36 foot Catamaran). In addition to the lines, we placed an anchor off the bow and one off the stern. The anchor was hauled away from the boat in the dingy and dropped. Jann tightened up on the  anchor line to have a little tension. The bottom didn’t provide very good holding as evidenced after the last hurricane, but the reasoning was that the two 35 lb anchors would help keep us stable.

At 1458, Nelson (Jann’s dad) called to tell us that he saw a report on the news reporting winds of 40 mph buffeting the coast. We were experiencing heavy to moderate winds with no rain at that time. All the lines were secured and holding steady.

Jann served up some hors d’oeuvres and drinks at 1725. I put on some peaceful music to help us relax. Jann decided that she should to take a picture of us with our hors d’oeuvres and drinks, because no one would believe we were in a hurricane and having such a good time.  At 1832 we ate diner and had a great salad.  Between 1930 and 2000 we had some major squalls which were a little intense. This was some of the worst weather we had ever experienced and there was still a ways to go! The boat was solid and not moving too much. We decided to stay in the salon area and not lay down in the stateroom. I dozed off a few hours before midnight while Jann kept a lookout for any dangers that might be creeping up on us. Jann does not hesitate to mention the fact that I fell asleep during the fiercest part of the storm! She even claims that I was snoring. Although I find this hard to believe, she managed to get a picture of me sleeping with my mouth wide open, looking very comfortable and relaxed.

All that preparation can really tire a person out! I am sure I could sleep having complete confidence in the vessel and the lines. As the eye wall of the storm  approached around midnight, we saw green lightning flashes in the sky to the south and the winds were increasing. It was a constant roar and when the gusts of wind would hit, it would flatten the mangrove trees and lift the boat a little.

At midnight, I jumped up quickly. It was dead calm. With not a sound to be heard, it was very eerie. The eye of the storm was directly over us and we could even see the moon and stars for a time. I was a bit frantic. Since I was sleeping, I didn’t know how much time we had to go out and check the boat and the lines. Jann was very calm and told me that we had plenty of time to adjust the lines and check everything. We went outside and looked around. The boat seemed in great shape, but I noticed that the lines on the starboard side were very slack. The stern line on the port side was very tight. I wondered why this was the case if there wasn’t even a breeze affecting the boat. Once I looked down at the water in the creek, I noticed that the water was very brown and flowing into the creek at a very fast pace. I couldn’t adjust that line because there was just too much pressure on it. While we were outside, the mosquitoes started to swarm all over us. Jann went in and brought out bug spray to spray on us to protect us as much as possible from the onslaught of those blood suckers. Using a 5 ft oar to try and gauge the depth of the water, even reaching in as far as I could, I couldn’t touch the bottom. Even this far inland, the tide surge was 8 to 10 feet. We could see above the mangroves now. We couldn’t see where our lines tied to the mangrove roots. With all secured, we retreated into the safety of the cabin.

At 0115, the eye was moving away from us. At first, I heard just a little hum coming from the mast, and then it started to get louder and louder, until within a very short period of time, the winds were hitting Split Decision with full force. This time the winds were blowing against the stern of the boat. As the gust hit the boat, we could feel the boat lift up slightly, then settle back down again.  The cabin door blew open at 0325. This is a bi-fold door which was sucked open from the outside and inside pressure variances. Jann came up with a way to hold the door closed by using some old sail ties and a line. She tied a couple of big knots in the sail ties and placed them in the folds of the door. We then pulled the door closed and attached the sail ties to another line which we tied around the table in the salon. This seemed to hold for awhile. The lines stretched some and the door blew open again. After re-securing it, we were able to keep the door closed for the rest of the night. It sure seemed to me that the wind was stronger on the back side of the hurricane than it was on the front. Maybe I just slept through the strong winds on the front of the hurricane and didn’t notice how bad they really were.  It was around 0415 when we started to hear a squeaking noise under the boat.  The only thing we could figure was that the dingy may have blown under the boat and was rubbing against it. I sure hoped it was ok.

Finally, it started to get light and around 0700, the winds started to die down some.  As the winds subsided, we went outside and checked all lines and the boat. All was well. We noticed to our South, that we could see

a mast of a sailboat which seemed to be much closer to the mangroves than it was the day before. It appeared that a sailboat was blown up against the  mangroves in the cove. We did not have any plans on moving our boat at that time because the winds were still quite strong, so we just relaxed and waited for the remains of the hurricane to move away. 

On September 27^th, at 0600 we woke up to a truly beautiful Florida day. The temperature was in the low 70’s with a slight breeze. We decided to move the boat back out to the cove. After a few minutes, we removed all the lines and anchors from the water. We slowly motored out of the creek back into Kitchings cove and dropped the hook. We saw several boats that were sunk in the cove, and confirmed that the mast we saw was from a boat blown up onto the mangroves. We felt truly blessed to be okay. While enjoying eggs, bacon and biscuits, we saw the other boat motor past us. We showered, dressed, cleaned up the boat, loaded up the dingy and headed for shore at 1100. It was now time to check on our the house.

Although we were quite tense during the height of the storm, we really never felt that our lives were in danger. This was the first Category 3 hurricane we have ever been through and every experience was new. We feel we know how to adequately prepare for a hurricane should one be in our future, although we have mixed feelings about riding it out on the boat again.