October 1-15 2016 Brunswick Landing and Hurricane Mathew

Well we didn’t take the boat out.   Mary wanted to go shark tooth hunting but that never happened either.  I guess we just didn't have the energy to get it all going.

I did ride to the store for some items we need for the potluck party tomorrow night.

And I spent some time reviewing all the hurricane data, basically tying to figure out if and when and how bad.  Conclusion?   We might have a hurricane here.

So instead of taking the boat out today, we cleaned it up a bit in anticipation of leaving the dock tomorrow morning for fuel and a water maker test.  Mary, sensing boat party, asked Brent and Susan and Rhonda and Bruce to join us so we may have company to witness the water maker making water.  It's tough to orchestrate such exciting events with so many people.

Took a long walk this evening.  There is a big freighter tied up along the commercial pier here being loaded and unloaded by a legion of forklifts.  It's unusual becasue most big freighters are container ships carrying large containers which are lifted off by dockside cranes.  This one was off loading large pallets with shipboard cranes.

I watched a while and then strolled up Union street.  Union street is one of those classic old southern street with big oaks, and moss forming a canopy over large wooden homes.  Quite interesting although is not lit very well.

We went to sea today.  Around 10AM.  My original intent was to take the boat out, test the water maker, fuel up, pump out and nestle back in our slip.  Quick easy few hours on the water.

Brent and Susan expressed a desire to tag along.  Mary had mentioned it to Rhonda and Bruce who also came along.  6 people on a water maker test cruise complete with booze, and food.  

Brent, Susan, Rhonda, Bruce enjoying the water maker cruise 

So we left and fought the incoming tide for a bit.  The only glitch was the portside start battery just couldn’t turn the engine over so I had to parallel it with the port side house batteries.  No big deal.  I was planning on replacing it anyway.

Once out in the harbor area Brent took over driving while I tried to start the generator.  It wouldn’t fire off so so I ended up going below and starting it there.  It's a another battery issue.  So two new batteries are in our future.

Got the water maker running and it preformed flawlessly with the new filters and nice fresh sea water.  70 gallons an hour! 

We went out the inlet and I turned around at the bend in the sea channel.  We were getting pushed around a bit from the beam seas and Susan is prone to seasickness so instead of taking a little run on the ocean we went back in the inlet to the more protected harbor area.

We did go by Driftwood beach where one can anchor but I thought it was too rough and we had no easy means to get to the beach anyway.  So I went right on by.

Once the watermaker had finished I shut the generator down and we cruised back to the marina letting the autopilot do all the steering.

As we entered the East River (where he marina is located) I was about to call Chris, the dock master  but another boat called ahead of us.  They were behind us though about ½ mile.  There was another boat behind them too.

But since we were in the lead I came up to the fuel dock first and pulled far enough ahead so that the other boats were able to tie up.  Poor Chris, listening to the radio chatter feared an argument over fuel.  But all was fine.  We even had a nice chat with the people on the boat behind us.

After fueling (150 gallons) and a pumpout we cruised the ½ mile to our slip where we were met by Cindy who was helping out Chris.  All docked and plugged in, I walked back to the marina office to pay for the fuel with a check to avoid their 4% fee credit card fee.

Then Brent and Susan, with Mary in tow picked me up and we went to the Copper Pig to eat lunch even though it was 2pm and in a few hours there was a big pot luck dinner party to attend.

Bruce and Rhonda declined to join us though.  Drats.

Once back in the marina I did a few chores and cleaned up a bit and sat down to read some articles on engine room ventilation when I apparently fell asleep.  I’m not a napper and rarely snooze during the day.  I blame this on the peach sangria we had the restaurant.

Anyway I woke up as Mary was leaving for the party.  So I showered, made a drink, tightened some dock lines and went over.  By then there was little food left but I wasn’t hungry anyway.  We have learned from experience that anyone not there at precisely the stated time will not be eating.  Cruising folks like their food and when its free, it doesn't last long.

After we returned I took my normal night time walk and ran into Brent and Susan who had gone to see the ship that was loading near the marina.  I went over and watched again for a few minutes then strolled down Union street and its oak trees.

The dog seems to have an aversion to the shower.   It won't come down to the bed until I’m finished showering.  She’ll sit up in the dark salon until I crawl into bed with a laptop before scampering down and then sitting patiently, waiting for me to hoist her up on the bed.  Then she hops right over to Mary and snuggles up and goes right to sleep.

Going to bed used to be so simple …

Mary was up and out the door by 7ish this morning on her quest for sharks teeth with Rhonda.  Meanwhile I woke up a few hours later with the dog tucked in my armpit.  I made coffee and then took a rather reluctant dog for a short walk. 

Worked on some banking when we returned and spent a few hours troubleshooting the starting batteries.  The port side battery tests weak as does the generator battery so its replacement time.  So I pretty much confirmed my earlier suspicions. 

Mary returned with a few sharks teeth and some interesting aromas from the spoil sands they were digging in.

I was going to the store but rain intervened and killed that idea.  We didn’t go to the normal cocktail party tonight either.  Are we slowing down?

In Hurricane Matthew news, it looks like its marching right up the coast.  Forecasts tend to place its track a few hundred miles off the Georgia and Florida coasts but they’re never very accurate this far out.  So since I’ll be alone here I’m preparing for the worst. 

Mary is flying to Dayton Thursday to help take care of Joanne our sister-in-law after her surgery.  I’m driving her to a hotel by the airport Wednesday afternoon.  Then its just Bubbie and me.  And an impending hurricane.  

Most of the focus today was on the hurricane.  It’s traveling north and is forecast to graze the coast here.  Exactly what that means remains to be seen.

Talked a few times with Janet and David on  a DeFever 49 they just acquired 2 weeks ago.  They are planning on doing the Loop.   They are here to clean out the boat and get familiar with it.  Auspicious Loop beginning, with a looming hurricane and all.

Today I removed the port engine and generator batteries.  Tested them again and they are marginal.   Couldn’t find a group 34 AGM marine battery here so have one waiting for me in Jacksonville since we’re going there anyway.  Oddly enough there is a battery store right near the airport.  Convenience at it's best!  I'm also buying a pair of marine terminals so I can use the spare battery I have that doesn't have the typical marine battery threaded posts.

It rained most of the day, shades of things to come I guess.

Brent came over for cocktails this evening.  Susan was off at Weight Watchers meeting while Mary was packing for her hotel stay tomorrow night.  Her flight leaves at 6:30AM Thursday.

I got the car, a brand new Nissan Maxima around 9 and did a little shopping for food stuff heading back to the boat.  The car I reserved was supposed to be a Chevy spark or Nissan Versa.  As usual they didn't have any so they gave me this brand new, once driven, luxury mobile.

When I returned we quickly went to the hurricane meeting the marina was hosting.  Much discussion about how awful things can be.  Here, there are several veterans of hurricanes, tsunamis cyclones, and other fun ocean events, so we aren't lacking in experiences.   We listened to helpful tips, and a few experiences, but all in all, this was more of a camaraderie meeting I think.  Much of the discussion touched on preparedness which most of us have started.

Forecasts are now showing the storm track east of us in the ocean so we shouldn't be seeing hurricane force winds.  But the forecasts are updated every few hours now so who knows.  Currently I've decided not to remove all our enclosures because the sustained winds are forecast to be below 50 mph. 

After we left the meeting I drove Mary to her the Microtel hotel next to the airport.in Jacksonville.  But first we stopped at a battery store so now at least I can start all the engines on board.   

I was expecting heavy traffic on the interstate but it was rather light.  Filled up the car and bought a last few items at the store before getting to the boat and feeding the dog.  Then went to the Wednesday night cocktail party for a few hours, came back and walked the dog.

She was fine until we turned around and then refused to walk so I had to carry her.  Unfortunately I had to walk past a few docks with groups of people who had split off from the main party.  Endured lots of witty remarks and belly laughs as I walked past carrying a dog, leash dangling by my side.  Everyone is a smart ass here. 

She didn’t poop either.  So it was only one treat!

When we returned I installed the batteries and hooked everything up so we should be good to go.

Tomorrow I decided to take the canvas down or leave it up.  Also have to decide to take the car back or keep it and flee inland.  Busy day.  The forecast should be much more solid tomorrow morning too.  Meanwhile we have 8 dock lines out with two spares.  8 fenders out too.  The only worrisome issue is the canvas.  It won't withstand 60 mph sustained winds.

I was jarred awake by from various electronic devices this morning, all announcing a hurricane warning.  5AM.   This wasn’t unexpected so I tried to go back to sleep much to the relief of the dog who's not an early riser.

But curiosity got the best of me so I looked up the latest forecast expecting to see the storm track moving further east.  I wasn't prepared for such a jolting surprise, especially at this hour of the morning.

The predicted track has moved well west putting  Brunswick and Glynn County right in the path.   The wind forecasts have been updated.  60-70 mph sustained winds with gusts to 100mph.  Yikes!

Based on this I will have to remove all the canvas, both flybridge and sundeck.  Crap!  Or, just chance it and leave it all up in hoped it will survive.  But to replace all of it is well into the 5 figure category so prudence is probably the better choice.  I'm sure I won't think that when we're trying to get it all back up.

Canvas, side curtains, windows ... all refer to basically the same thing:  The side, corner and front windows we have on the flybridge and the sundck.  The bimini is the top (roof) on the fly bridge.

Another question is how the sundeck and flybridge will survive all the rain.  We have a couch on the sundeck made from Sunbrella which is fine with all the water.  It's the large amount of stuff under the cushions I worry about.  And then there's the freezer which will be exposed too.  On the flybridge we have a refrigerator and all the navigation instruments.  And of course oodles of stuff under the benches.

I started working on this at 7AM.  Finished getting all the enclosures down by 1 with help from Brent, Craig and Lou!  Quite a chore.  And we had a few cracked windows.   Old vinyl windows like ours are prone to cracking when they are old.  Especially so if they haven't been treated regularly.

Forward stateroom shower

After getting it all down including the large bimini top and all the side curtains (windows) I moved them down to the forward stateroom.   The stateroom is a bit over stuffed and I'm not even finished.

Full forward stateroom

Open Flybridge now.  Nice and airy.

It took several hours to tape up cabinets and other miscellaneous things and to move all the loose stuff below to the bulging forward stateroom.  We now have a totally open sundeck and flybridge.  Considering the 10 inches of rain or more they are calling for, we will have a clean, clean boat.  In fact we had that on our list, to clean all the interior decks.  Matthew may just be taking care of that for us!

Nice airy sundeck with well covered freezer

Lou helping us with Brent's side curtains

I helped Brent take his canvas down and then helped Craig do the same.  Later we manhandled his dinghy around on the dock where he tied it off and filled it with water to weigh it down.  100 mph winds can toss heavy things around.

Most every boat here now has removed all their canvas and tied down dinghies and put out many lines and fenders.  Except Lou, the grizzled old salt.  He left his up because  his take on all this is different than NOAA.  "It won't be nearly that bad", so he says.

Several people I met flew in today to take care of their boats.  The delightful Mat and Karen, two Aussies decided to head to New Orleans for the week after they had secured their boat.  Party on!

Crammed everything from outside, inside

Now the only issue is fleeing.  I extended the car rental until Monday.  My compact car, magically transformed into a gadget laden Nissan Maxima, is quite comfortable which is a benefit because there are no hotel rooms between here and Macon GA.  At least on my last check. 

We leave 7AM tomorrow which should put us at least 100 miles away from the coast when the first effects of Mathew are felt here.  There is a mandatory evacuation for Brunswick so legally, I had to leave anyway.  Although there are a few hearty souls who elected stayed on their boats.

All our fenders and most of our dock lines out

I almost got a hotel room here from a cancellation one of the boaters, Steven, told me about.  He gave his name and said to ask for the room vacated by him.  But when I called the hotel they refused.  Not so much because of the unusual request but because they were closing the hotel and chasing everyone out.  It turns out any hotel in the evacuation zone has to be evacuated.

Anyway we are all packed and in bed early.  Waking the dog up wont be pleasant.

I was up at 5AM today with the hurricane warnings screeching on my phone again.   Took all the stuff I packed up to the car and returned to do some last minute things when Lou knocked on the boat.  He and Ann needed a lift to their hotel.

While he went back to get his stuff ready I completed prepping the boat and took a reluctant Bubbie for a walk. 

Drove Lou and Ann to their hotel which was just outside of the evacuation zone, and then, ignoring Googles repeated attempts to take to me to I-16 towards Macon, headed up GA 341 which is a 4 lane road with only a few towns to travel through.  And it was nearly traffic free.  I-16 evidently was not.

I was figuring on making it to Atlanta where there are thousands of hotel rooms, some of which, must be vacant.  So later in the afternoon nearing Atalanta I stopped at a rest area to walk the dog and then I checked a dozen hotels in the city and 50 miles north.

No vacancies.  Nothing as far north as Knoxville so one hotel clerk told me.  Meanwhile Rob called me and suggested I stay with them near Atlanta.   Since I had no other alternatives I took them up on their kind offer.

The dog and Indy the cat who's peering out her cat door

Rob and "Fritz", aka Bubbie

They live in Lawrenceville which lies southeast of Atlanta.  Their drive way is this patch of gravel in the middle of a handsome subdivision.  The gravel driveway (more like a path) appears to just lead off into the thick woods.  It's hard to see initially and once I was driving on it, fleeting memories of some jungle movie popped in my head.  But after a short distance it emerges on their driveway.

Nice log house with an seperate garage.  It's right in the middle of forested low area.  Very pretty and quiet.

Good to see them again.  Bubbie and Indy, their cat, seemed to stare each other down but nothing came of it.  Bubbie, or Fritz as Rob named her, would sit looking at the cat who would puff up like a balloon and sort of walk away sideways.  Bubbie watched for a few seconds then settled in for a nap.

The TV weather reports are mostly repeats of the same info we've had before where some poor soul is stuck standing out in the wind and rain saying it's really rainy and windy here.

Not sure when I can leave to get back to Brunswick tomorrow.  I'll figure that out tomorrow,

Rob and Sue were up and down most of the night checking for news on Savannah.  Their boat is in Turner Creek a mile or so down the Wilmington River from Thunderbolt, one of our favorite places.

Savannah seem to be getting the worst of the storm.   It sort of lingered near there for a bit before making the turn out towards sea.  12 inches of rain and a large tidal surge which is the dangerous part.  Tides there are normally 6-8 feet there.  Add in another 7 feet of  tidal surge and docks can slip off their pilings and float way taking the boat with them.

In the morning Rob talked with a few people who were around Turner Creek and it sounds like their boat fared well.  I heard from several people in Brunswick and learned that the impact wasn’t nearly as severe as first thought.   So I decided to head back today.

Said our goodbyes and I made the unenviable journey to Brunswick.  Traffic on I-75 between Atlanta and Macon was unreal.  30-40 mph were high lites.  Usually we were doing 15mph.  Luckily  Georgia highway 341 was free of traffic.

But when I got to Brunswick the state troopers weren’t letting people into the city so I tried the next exit north.  Same story.  No entry.   I figured I'd just go to the nearby Rest Area on I-95 and feed the dog and then figure out what to do.

Rest area wasn't too badly damaged

The rest area was littered with branches and large puddles of water.   But I fed the her and we had a nice walk through the debris.  There was no power so it was rather dark but the restrooms were open.  Everything else was locked up.

Sitting in the car I was able to check the Glynn county website.  Cell towers seemed to have survived. The website had posted a notice that stage 4 of the evacuation plan was now taking place.  That’s the part where people can return to the city.  So I headed back out on I-95 and exited at Brunswick again and sure enough the interchange was devoid of troopers.

The city was without power so none of the stoplights worked.  Nor were there any street lights so it was eerily dark.  But there was a traffic.  Not a lot but enough to make the intersections a bit interesting.

I didn't notice much damage but did pass several spots where electrical repair work was taking place. Driving near the marina some of the streets had fallen branches and lots of twigs.  And many areas of standing water.

The marina, when I approached it was dark except for little beams of light from  people wandering around the docks with flashlights.   There didn't appear to be any major damage to the docks or any boats.

The boat floats!

The boat was floating and looked, at least in the dark, just fine.  We had no power but the batteries provided light and kept the fridge going.  The freezer must have dropped off line but I didn’t want to open it up.  After a dog walk in the dark I hopped in bed and the power came on suddenly an hour or so later.  So spent a few minutes getting things turned back on.   No wifi though.  The dog, happy to have a big bed to stretch out on, slept through it all.

I was up early and started in.  The bad discoveries were both wifi boosters were water saturated which meant they don’t work any longer.

We had the leak in the aft stateroom re-appear again so I may need to invest in some more caulking time.

De-lamination from a mysterious leak

We also had mysterious leak in the lower helm station.  You can see where the overhead wood is de-laminating.  But I couldn’t find where the heck its coming from.

No scrubbing required an more.  Thanks Mathew!

Water everywhere.  In the back corner there was at least an inch.

Most of the sundeck couch storage was saturated as were the areas under the benches on the fly bridge so I aired them out and removed some waterlogged items including paper, books and other assorted stuff.

Lots of  junk in the dryer vent

With all the wet towels and rags I went and made another stab at prodding the dryer to greater drying efforts.  Basically I cleaned out the venting as best as I could.

I did blast out the aft section of the sundeck with the hose to clear out some accumulated debris the winds brought in.  Once that was all cleaned out I brought out the plants and several things other things we usually stow, back there.  So now, the forward stateroom is marginally less crammed.

I did discover some pretty big cracks on the radar arch which I’ll have to epoxy.  Not from the hurricane but they must have been pre-existing which would explain a leak in the arch I was having trouble tracking down.   Tomorrow I'm working on the windows, cleaning them all up and then cleaning and re-waterproofing the bimini.  If there’s time tomorrow I’ll get that up first followed by the sundeck windows.

Have to return the car tomorrow but I’m thinking I’ll just keep it until next week because I pick Mary up this coming Saturday.

Jennifer is 41 today.   I have a 41 year old daughter?  How can this be?   I guess I am firmly in the “old” category now.  No escape!

Worked on epoxying several open screw holes and those cracks in the radar arch.  Also the wood pad under the stub mast is rotting so I cleaned it out and lined it with tape before back filling with epoxy.

Cleaning and polishing windows.

Cleaned up all the sundeck windows with cleaner and polish but I may need some help getting them up.  Bubbie's lack of interest in the whole operation pretty much means I'll need to go find someone on the dock. 

Drove to the Winn Dixie and picked a few things out from its barren shelves.  The whole freezer section was cordoned off because, I suspect, they lost power for at least a day and the food spoiled.  And the remaining shelves had very few items, probably becasue of the rush to buy before the storm hit.

My 3 Daughters sunk at the dock

My 3 Daughters, an old shrimp boat tied to the pier at Mary Ross Waterfront Park had sunk.  Sad to see.  It’s been floating there for at least year tied to the dock along the park.

Heard from Jeff in Canada, and called Rob and contacted Curt who was asking about us.

Rhonda texted me a reminder about the Net this morning.  The Net, is a period of time where someone conducts sort of chat session on the VHF radio.  There is news, buy and sell, etc. and can be an entertaining hour or so.  But her message notification didn’t wake me up because 20 minutes after the message was received I woke up with the dog staring at me breathing her fire breath of death. 

After walking her and making arrangements to keep the car for another week, I started on hanging the side curtains on the sundeck.  It took a few minutes to figure out which one went on which side, but eventually I got them all sorted out. 

Needed help with this one hanging there on the right

The only troublesome one was the port side which is a large window set in a sliding track.  I couldn’t do it alone because it require someone to push and pull at the same time.

Craig and a gift for Mary

Luckily Craig, a Minnesotan, a few boats down was still here and he came over and we got it up in a few minutes.  Craig is also the one who crafted a green and gold bracelet thing.  He gives them to Packer fans that he knows.  Nice gesture.  Except he presents them as a sympathy gift.  In other words he only gives them away when the Packers lose to the Vikings.

Now that the windows are all hung the bottom pin snaps need to be, well snapped.  The windows have small fittings which line up with the pins on the boat.  It can be a chore tugging and pulling enough to get the pins into the fittings on the windows.  But waiting for the sun to heat up the windows helps immensely.    There are a few pins I'll have to replace at some point.

I started cleaning up the fly bridge windows and then had to quick mix up some epoxy to fill a few other holes I discovered, most notably in the starboard side.  Epoxy doesn’t really setup well in temps  below 70.  And now the sun was beginning to go down dragging the temps with it.  It may take quite awhile for it to all setup, but I wont be doing any work on them until tomorrow morning.

Gourmet plate snubbed by an unsophisticated dog 

I fed the dog but, having noticed previously she has some difficulty getting her face in the bowel, put the food on a nice new plate.  The dog looked at me, snorted and jumped up on the couch and closed her eyes.  It was our best china too!

So back to the bowel.  She noticed that and immediately jumped down and inhaled the food.  So much for dining sophistication.

I'm also noticing that my charm and witty conversation is brushed aside and goes unnoticed when meeting people on the dog’s walk.  They all brush by me and pet the dog which seems enjoy the attention, however briefly.  I now find myself known as the guy who walks the cute boston terrier and then carries it back to the boat.  Ugh ...

Woke up late.  We didn’t take the dog for a walk until 10:30 which was just fine with here.  Ran into several people, all of which, ignored me and doted on the dog.   Again.

Also ran into Lou who suggested we head back to his boat on dock 8 where he had his stash of dog treats.  He and Ann no longer have a dog so they get their fix by spoiling other dogs.

This morning, the usual 20 minute dog walk took 90 minutes.

I fastened down most of the sundeck windows although there are a few studs I have to replace on the port side which will have to wait until we get to Huckins.

Put up the fly bridge window although they aren't zippered tightly yet.  On the surface it seems rather simple to snap and zip windows in place.  Factor in some age, and very stuff heavy vinyl sewn inside stiff and heavy sunbrella fabric and the simple becomes a nightmare.

Talked a few minutes with Janet who was washing their windows before hanging them back up on their flybridge.  They are getting estimates on new ones. 

Ready to wash the underside of the bimini

I washed the bimini top and discovered a small wear hole which I’ll have to patch tomorrow after I waterproof it.  I’ll try and get it hung tomorrow too.

Went to the store (Publix) and then to Brent and Susans for dinner.  We had a great time.  They have stories of their rooming house which are fascinating.  Bubbie also joined us and rudely napped on their salon floor.

Brent and Susan

Received the new Bullit 2.4 ghz WiFi booster which I couldn’t get working for a time until I checked the ‘transparent bridging” box.  How soon we forget ...

Lou came over this morning and helped me put up the bimini and close some of the rear zippers.  I zipped his hand once but I figured he deserved it because he was the one who left all his enclosures up during the hurricane with no damage.  Not even a pulled out snap.

But before we put it up, I waterproofed both sides.  

Bimini, the hardest piece to install, is up!

After we had the bimini up and Lou left, I hung a few more side curtains (windows).  Approaching full enclosure... almost.

I was able to hang all the rest of the canvas today even with a late start this morning.  The portside flybridge window is missing a zipper doodad though so it won't be able to be zipped tight until I figure out something.

I took about an hour and caulked the stub mast pad so it shouldn't be leaking any more.

Nice chat with Sharon who walked the entire Keys.  She and Steven are on a  Dettling 51.  It's capable of going fast and has down east cruiser appearance.  They were Krogen owners and know Rob and Sue.  Our word is shrinking rapidly!

Fabricated a support post for the drop down overhead at the lower helm station today.  Finished up some caulking and did some banking.  It rained at noon so I just stayed inside and worked on the computer updating everything.  Even copied some routes through several of the shallow areas on the ICW from Bob423, a contributor to Active Captain and very, very good. 

Then after feeding and walking the dog, we climbed in the luxury mobile by 6 to get Mary from Jacksonville.  Her plane arrives around 7 and as we neared the airport, which a little more than an hour from Brunswick, I noticed we were early.  So I pulled into the Florida welcome station, rousted the dog and we took a walk where she deposited her first gift on Florida soil.

Mary called as we were leaving the rest area.  A few minutes later I was sitting in the car waiting for her but she had to stop and get something to eat so I was chased out by the security folks.  But only briefly.  She called saying she was outside but a down aways from where I was parked.  So we parked again and waited, while the security guy starting to walk towards us, hand on his baton.

Luckily she made it before the baton wielding security.  We loaded up her luggage and she jumped in expecting a butt wiggling welcome from the dog.  Not so much.  The dog grunted a bit but retreated back to her napping corner and went to sleep.  Uh Oh ...  Even when Mary tried to love her up there was no real excited reaction.  She seemed more interested in me actually.  This may not bode well.

But we'll see when we get back on the boat.