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Hurricane Idalia
Downgraded!Good morning everyone, We've had one tornado warning and the winds and storm picked up to 35knots and you could only see about 300 yards. We don't have any confirmed touchdown. Sam is live streaming on and off on the youtube site. LIVE COVERAGE We had a pretty big leak on the mast boot and I've been trying to minimize that this morning. Hannah and Wanda are at the club house, Sam is streaming, and I'm on the boat. We're as ready as we can be. I have a rope ready to tie off the boat next to us if need be and I just heard good news that Idalia has been downgraded to a 2. Hopefully this will only be a tropical storm when it hits us. The winds right now are 28 knots with rain. Winds are out of the south east (144deg) There are bands of rain that come through every hour or so. They are picking up and getting more severe but so far no lightening, just lots of rain. I will post here every hour or so with an update.
15:54 UTC: Winds have picked up a little bit. No more rain at the moment but the boat is rocking and the wind is howling. Peak winds were 36 knots a moment ago and we're holding steady over 22, well there's 38. I added a line to the boat next to us. We just brought the live stream to the boat.
16:45 UTC: Winds are still 25G35 but they are staying over 25 more and more and the boat is listing to port more often Sam is walking back to the clubhouse with the live feed.
18:09 UTC Winds have died down 15G25 no rain to speak of... the time till the peak winds hit us has been moved back to 17-1800. This is a waiting game I guess.
19:36 UTC Waiting game is over! 55 knots. Grace is pressed hard against the dock and listing 10 deg. Other boats are grinding against the dock without enough bumpers. I'm very glad I purchased the other bumpers. I have all 4 bumpers added to the port side. Some people are measuring in the 60's and dock 4 is having a problem. It might be coming apart. We are on dock 15 which is the newest and best positioned dock. I have probably 20 boats blocking the wind for me. Sam is still walking the dock and streaming! Check out the video. I'm on the boat and grace is doing fine. Hannah and Wanda are in the club house. I'm going to walk up to the club house in a few minutes with Anamaashi. There are several boats with canvas torn and coming off. I see several different wind generators that look like they are going to come apart and fly off and hurt something. Oh... there are a group of Hispanic boys sitting on the rail road tracks above us watching the storm and the marina. I'm sure they're waiting for some excitement to ensue. This is going to go on for then next 2 hours now. The forcast is for 60 knots in about an hour.
20:05 UTC Went up to inspect the boat. we are 45G55 now and it never drops below 45. It's started raining a little either that or it's blowing spray from the water. But everything we did is working. My lines are not slapping, the booms are staying in place, the lines on the base of the mast are staying put and we have the right amount of bumpers. So if you watched the video on our preparations they worked. And so far Brunswick is wonderful, Now that is not to say there will not be damage on this dock. I see lots of boats not prepared so well and they are not faring well, but the docks are solid. I don't think anything can survive 100+ knots and would not want to be pressed against the dock in those winds. We were lucky and got a good dock way back up the channel with lots of wind breaks in front of us. Oh, the power went out about an hour or so ago so we are running on battery at the moment. Power is out all over.
22:07 UTC We have peaked and are on the downward side of the storm I'm seeing 30g42 now and light rain. We went up to the clubhouse for a couple hours and hung out there. We left Lilah on the boat and she was very glad to see us when we came back. We're going back for happy hour if there is one in about 30 minutes. Sam's live stream worked very well. I'm glad everything went well. I'm sure it didn't for other folks in Florida and Georgia but the eye went north and west of us significantly so we got it lighter than expected. Tomorrow we recupperate and start preparing to head north again on Friday. It looks like the winds will be directly out of the north on Friday so we're going up the intercoastal again.
