Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

Greetings one and all,
We have survived Hurricane Ivan! After being without power, TV, and internet for a week (almost to the hour), I have rejoined my place in the real world. It was (and still is) quite an experience. If you are interested, I have created a new section on my website with Ivan logs, complete with lots of pictures. Though not finished, I hope to add much more in the next few days. http://heartofgoldsails.com/News.htm

It feels good to be back.

Doug,

Glad to hear you made it through OK, and particularly that your own house and those of your family were basically unscathed.

Thanks for the firsthand logs and pictures! It's amazing to see the devastation. It must have been quite an experience--one that I hope never to have, frankly!

Thanks for the kind words, we are also grateful for our safety. I had a few minutes this morning and added a photo gallery of 3 of the local marinas, about 50 pics in all. Interestingly, some of the boats in the shipyard tipped over, I believe because the stands may have buckled. Kinda ties into penthink's "Would somebody please take a stand?"

sigh. some storms just have no respect for a decent paintjob these days!

All kidding aside, those are some impressive pics. I found it curious to see that many of the boats still had their sails bent on. It's SOP around here to unbend sails and even dismount the boom if practical when we know there's a serious blow coming. Every little bit of windage.....

Very glad to hear that you made it through OK. We finally heard from an uncle near Ft. Walton Beach just the other day. He had a few tales to tell!

What a depressing scene!

Not that the sails had anything to do with the devastation pictured, but I also cannot believe that people would leave sails on in the face of a powerful (or any) hurricane. I pull my sails off if a 30+ knot storm is predicted here.

The surge is always the worst part. Once those docks get lifted off the pilings, there's no hope at all. God, what a mess.

I agree about the sails. But one must remember is that many of these boat owners only "store" their boats here but live, in some cases, hundreds of miles inland, and could not get to their boats to secure them (for what little good it would have done). It is interesting to me that many of these boats, still lashed to their "mobile" docks, have little or no visible damage, yet the boat next to it is completely submerged. And I am no Hunter fan, but seeing that one literally cut in half was really difficult to see in person.

Remember, too, that these are only 3 of the local establishments. Nearly 2 dozen more marinas were also literally washed away (and I am only speaking about the surrounding 10 or 15 miles). One marina (Bahia-Mar) has a huge wherehouse with boats dry stored. The entire building is literally flattened and every boat inside (probably over 100) is totalled.

I haven't gotten to it in my log yet, but we are still under a curfew here from midnight to 7am. The surrounding waterways and bays are considered strictly OFF LIMITS. The Coasties are patroling, and will arrest any and all recreational boaters out on the bay and intercostal waterway(something about a gubernatorial or legislative decree stating that the monumental amount of debris in the water and the absence of all navigational aids make recreational boating unsafe).

The national guard is still patroling the streets, most of the traffic lights are still non-functional or damaged, there is NO cable service yet, and public schools will likely be closed until the second week of October (EVERY one of the 70 schools in the county sustained some damage. As of today, only 3 are ready to recieve students). Oh yea, we are still under a "boil water" order, due to hazardous bacteria levels in the water. Think about it.... That means no coffee or soda fountain sales in stores, water must be boiled to wash dishes (no dishwashers) and the same goes for washing clothes.

I may have power and phone back, but it is still a big mess down here.