"Jeff" wrote in message ...
| Glad to hear you rode it out in style. I must say I was a bit
| concerned. Although the Snake is probably the most secure area for
| 100 miles, I doubt I would have had the nerve to go closer to the track.
|
| I was curious if you had much of a surge there; they were predicting
| 12 to 20 feet. Also, what would it have been like closer to your
| home, like in the mangroves around Lake Largo?


Thanks for the good words.

They only got about seven feet of surge in the Key Largo anchorage on the
Bayside. I'm not sure where Lake Largo is but I guess they got seven or
so feet there as well. There were lighter winds in Key Largo because the
storm tracked north of here but I wanted to get away because I knew
even a Cat 5 was survivable up in the mangroves of the Shark River whereas
if the storm stayed powerful and happened to take a turn that tracked it
right up the Keys there would have been roofs, etc. flying around destroying
everything in site. The mangroves are short around here - only fifteen or twenty
feet and they don't really offer much shelter at all.

CN


|
|
|
| Capt. Neal® wrote:
| Dear Group,
|
| It sure takes a sorry bunch of losers and lamers to spend so
| much of their time posting here when they could be sailing. I
| can understand how those who have no boats and sail vicariously
| through those of us who do have boats are caught in this insidious
| trap but I just can't figure out why those who DO have boats
| forsake sailing them in lieu of blathering inanities here.
|
| Instead of pontificating in this forum about how great one's boat
| is on paper compared to others' boats and trying to justify yet
| another uninformed purchase, would it not be better to be out sailing
| said vessel to ascertain her strong and weak points so the weak can
| be corrected and the strong appreciated?
|
| It is ever a sad state of affairs when those who pretend lead around
| by the nose those who cannot recognize a pretender, is it not? Sorry
| guys, but I, Capt. Neal, am intelligent enough to not fall prey to such
| nonsense. I'd rather be sailing.
|
| My latest sail consisted of a rowdy broad reach up to the Little
| Shark River in the Everglades to ride out Hurricane Wilma. "Cut
| the Mustard" and two other vessels ("Harbinger" - an Atlantic
| City Cat 24 and "Breakin' Wind" - an Irwin 32 center cockpit)
| sailed up from the Keys the Wednesday prior to the storm's landfall.
| We arrived with a couple of days to spare before Wilma (who hung
| around the Yucatan for days) made landfall on the peninsular. We
| sought safe harbor way up a Shark River tributary and on a side
| creek of that tributary where the mangrove's grow higher than
| anywhere else in the USA. Imaging fifty and sixty foot tall, thick
| groves of mangroves. That's where we sheltered. We tied up to the
| mangroves on either side of the little side creek. Luckily, the mosquitoes
| were nowhere to be seen but, unfortunately, the no-see-ums were
| thicker than lies in a Bobsprit post.
|
| We experienced the core of the hurricane and the south eye wall
| with sustained winds of well over 120 knots and higher gusts (Joe,
| put me down for riding out without a scratch yet another storm!).
| Have any of you ever experienced 'rain' consisting of crushed and
| shredded leaves? That's what we had. The lush tropical forest
| canopy was turned to brown and broken branches by the time the
| storm had passed - a period of about 10-12 hours.
|
| Interestingly, we had a two or three knot current sideways to the
| creek when the fifteen foot storm surge rolled in. All three boats
| came through without a scratch or breakage of any sort. It took me
| three hours, though, to clean all the bits and pieces of leaves and
| sticks from my boat. Luckily I had plenty of bleach to counteract
| the tannic acid from the leaves which had stained my light green
| nonskid brown and my white paint on the deck yellow/brown. Yuck!
| But a little elbow grease was all it took to get things shipshape again.
|
| We three single-handers enjoyed the storm and the company of real
| sailors and even had plenty of rum and ice too keep us in good
| cheer. We enjoyed an abundance of good food and music and tall
| tales.
|
| After the storm passed we waited a day for the storm surge to
| subside and the river current to free itself somewhat of flotsam
| and headed back downriver. We sailed out of the mouth of the
| river just as a Coast Guard helicopter passed overhead. They had
| 'spotted' all seven or eight vessels that had sought refuge up
| the river prior to the storm and had returned to make sure
| all was well. I can imagine the crew looking down and thinking
| to themselves, "Now, there's three "real" sailors down there!
| If all sailors were like them we'd be out of a job."
|
| The wind was very light out of the northwest as we ghosted
| down the Gulf Coast toward East Cape and the yacht channel to
| the south. We ran out of daylight near Schooner Bank and anchored
| in its lee in a freshening northeast wind. The wind built during
| the night and the next day we enjoyed a screaming reach down
| to the yacht channel markers and Intracoastal Waterway. I sailed
| all the way to Steamboat Channel and put the Irwin and the
| catboat hull down. From Steamboat Channel it was a motor
| job up to the anchorage off the "OV" - that's short for the
| Ocean View Bar and Grill (which sits on the bayside - go figure) -
| where we went ashore for a cheeseburger in paradise. The skipper
| of the "Breakin' Wind" is a real ladies man and sort of a local
| legend and he had several women all over him so Catboat Jim and
| I had plenty of attention as well dealing with the overflow.
|
| A good boat, a fresh breeze and a woman in every port - it doesn't
| get any better than that. . .
|
| So, let this be a lesson to all of you who think sailing is nothing
| more than a pack of lies and bull**** on a sailing newsgroup. Get
| out there and go sailing. Even a hurricane offers us real sailors an
| opportunity to DO instead of imagining doing. How many of
| you reading this can claim over a hundred and twenty miles
| of sailing in the path of a hurricane and are able to look back
| on it as some of the best days of your life?
|
| No response? I figured as much.
|
| Respectfully,
| Capt. Neal
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
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