Watching the Tropics

Just before we left Marineland, we see 3 manatees
swim into the marina cove.  This is one coming
up to breathe.

It must be summertime in Florida, or is it just Hurricane Season?

Our weather had been just about perfect for the past 3 weeks – nice east breeze off the ocean, sunny (but warm), with no rain at all.  Great cruising weather, but we had paid for a month stay at Marineland Marina.  So the middle of last week we “make all necessary preparations for getting underway” (as the Navy used to say) to start our trip to the west side of Florida, and wouldn’t you know it!  Here comes our tropical system Invest 99L, crawling across the Caribbean heading just north of Miami.

Another manatee coming up for air (nose on the left).
The swirls to his left are evidence of the other 2 having
just dove back down after breathing. (click to enlarge)
The white marks on his back are injuries from a
boat propeller.  These guys are slow moving.

So we discuss whether to move the boat north to Jacksonville to avoid the storm, or south to Daytona Beach.  Either way, we better leave Marineland, cause this is not a good place to ride out a hurricane.  After a couple days of watching its track, and talking daily to our friend Don in Daytona Beach (who is a retired Navy meteorologist), we predict that it could make landfall just south of Miami as a CAT 1 or less, and we head to Daytona Beach marina.

We make the 35 mile trip south last Thursday, with an uneventful trip UNTIL we ran aground just north of Daytona.  It took a couple moments to realize we were aground (rather than stopped by our props getting tangled by something), as I’m racing around below deck, throwing open hatches to check for water in the bilges and prop shaft packing.  We were stuck tight – not moving at all – and the tide was falling!  I tried calling TowBoatUS, but after 5 minutes on hold, we decided to try to unstick ourselves.  By increasing power in reverse, and by churning up the sand & mud beneath us, we were finally able to back off the shoal.  After limping into the Daytona Beach marina, we called a diver to inspect our keel and running gear.  Luckily, there was no damage.

So now we get back to the approaching tropical system & try to plan our departure as soon as it passes.  Wouldn’t you know that the thing meanders into the Gulf of Mexico & then decides to turn NE back across Florida.  Looks like we’ll be waiting for this thing until the end of this week.  In the meantime, we’ll put out extra lines, batten down the hatches & get ready to hunker down.  I’m sure there’s a hurricane party going on somewhere!