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This was what welcomed us the first night at Dunedin
Signs of things to come? |
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The finger piers underwater
The dock was soon to follow |
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| High tide and storm surge |
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| Across the fairway from us |
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Our first day off the boat after the storm!
Huge fish out of water! |
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Sunset a couple days after the storm
Still lots of seaweed washed up |
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Florida State Park
A great place! |
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| Looking over the grounds at Caladesi |
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| Not the most comforting sign! |
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| Caladesi Island |
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| Beautiful beach - looking out to Gulf |
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| Calm peaceful night at the marina |
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| Our own private beach! |
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| Looking out to the Gulf |
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Coming in for a landing
Picnic time! |
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| Sand between my toes - love it! |
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| Elks Lodge |
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| NautiNell weathered better than some |
We’ve been here at Dunedin about three weeks now. AND it’s been an interesting time, I must
say!
As I last posted we arrived to Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin on
August 27 and then the next day we rode the Jolly Trolley down to Indian Rocks
and picked up our car. The next week was
spent anticipating the storm that seemed to be heading our way. For those of
you that are like us and are not too familiar with tropical disturbances, here
is a short synopsis of what happened: First it was only an Invest 99 L, which was
just hanging out there making rain off the coast. The models showed it going everywhere and
nothing was really expecting it to become anything significant except some
rain. Then it became a Tropical Depression 9 causing
us a little more concern but still they were only saying it was going to be
mostly rain. Once it became a Tropical
Storm it had a name – Hermine. The problem
was that it was moving up into the Gulf of Mexico but at only 2 mph! The weather experts were having a hard time
determining just where it was going to go – even though it had been out there
for over two weeks. So now being from
Missouri, what do we know about hurricanes!
Little did we know we were about to have a crash course. We watched the weather information very
closely. We put on extra lines to tie
NautiNell down more securely. For a long
time it still looked like the worst was just going to be a lot of rain and some
wind. Then things changed. She became much more organized and turned
toward the west coast (that was us). It
was determined that it would become a Category 1 by the time it hit
landfall. The first Hurricane to hit
landfall in Florida since 2005! And
wouldn’t you know it, the storm was on a path just going north of us by a
couple of hundred miles – maybe. This
meant that the storm was producing 70+ mph winds. We put out all the fenders and lines we
had. Oh, and of course, we made a run to
the grocery store, Walgreens and the liquor store. They told us to stock up on necessities! We decided that since the storm was really
going mostly north of us we would ride it out on the boat. The problem with that (we didn’t really know
at the time) was that we were on what they call the “dirty side” of the
storm. We could get lots of residual
rain and wind and storm surge. Storm
surge - that water in the Gulf has to go somewhere when the winds are blowing
it out! So it comes inland. That and the fact there was a new moon already
causing a higher tide than usual - there was going to be major flooding. Our main concern was the wind and the storm
surge. We didn’t want to float up above
the pilings we were tied to. Luckily the
storm surge was not as bad here at the marina.
It was up only about an extra foot or two. They did have to turn off the power
here at the marina because the water was up over the dock and fingers. However, little farther north it wreaked
havoc at over five feet! The worst came
about 3:00 – 5:00 in the morning when Hermine was making landfall. We rode out 70+ mph winds. The sound was horrible! I was beginning to doubt our decision to
remain on the boat. But it was too late
to do anything then! Of course, it was
dark and everything sounds worse at night.
I kept telling myself that as long as the dock was secure, so were
we. Finally morning came – no sleep – we
stuck our heads out to see how things looked.
There were several boats that had their canvas shredded. The water was still up over the dock by about
6 inches. The last dock out which is
open to the Gulf waters had some damage where the wind had pulled it up. As far as NautiNell, we lost a fender and our
boarding steps (they must have floated off the finger) and we have a “bruise”
on the port side. The bruise is where
the boat rubbed up against the piling all night after it tore off the
fender. It is worn down through the gel
coat. Luckily it can be fixed without
too much of a problem, we’re told. We
consider ourselves very lucky after seeing what happened to others on farther
up north. We can check this off our
bucket list! Wouldn’t you know every
summer we have done our best to be in a so called “hurricane hole” during the
season. The one summer we don’t do that –
and a hurricane makes landfall very close to where we are! I do want to thank all our boating friends
nearby that offered help and refuge if we needed it. It’s nice to know they’re out there.
Okay, so things are somewhat back to normal now. We’ve found
a couple of places to hangout! We’ve
made it to a great little British Pub (Cricketeers) for lunch and Happy
Hour. And we’ve been to Casa Tina’s
where we had some great Mexican! Of
course, we’ve found the American Legion and the Elks Lodge and a place just a
block away called Frenchy’s!
One day John and Susan (boaters on Alchemy that we met in
Marathon) came up from St Pete to visit with us. We really enjoyed it! We spent most of the time at the Legion
having $1.00 drafts. Oh, and playing
bingo where meat is the prize. John won a steak!
Then after the sun came out one day, we realized that it was
Labor Day weekend! We had been so preoccupied with the weather, it slipped up
on us! So we decided to take a dinghy ride over to
Caladesi Island which is a State Park.
It’s only a few miles away. You
can only get there by boat. There is a
ferry that runs back and forth from Honeymoon Island. You get to Honeymoon Island by crossing the
Dunedin Causeway. But we can do it all
by dinghy! The next day we took another
dinghy trip to Three Rookers Sandbar.
There are lots of beautiful beaches here. Although there is a bunch of sea grass due to
the storm. It will eventually clear up,
I’m sure. We had a picnic on the
beach. And finally sand between my toes!
The next week found us driving to Venice. We headed down that way to visit with Jeff
(Jeremiah). I had a dentist appointment
there so we had the perfect excuse for a road trip. We stopped in Bradenton and had lunch with
William and Judy (Optimystique). It was
really good to see them! It was only a 1
1/2 hour drive to Venice so we were there in no time. We hung out with Jeff for a couple of
days. It was a really nice visit. We met Paul and Leslie who are good friends
of Jeff. It turns out that Paul was a
co-owner of a boat that we chartered in the Bahamas over 15 years ago! Paper Moon!
What a small world.
We made it back to NautiNell on Saturday just in time to be
able to recuperate. William and Judy
showed up in their boat Monday morning.
They’re staying a couple of days.
We managed to have Happy Hour at Rosie’s Tavern and then dinner at
Cricketeers. What a fun time!
Yesterday (Sept 13) We
all went to Tarpon Springs for Happy Hour and to just check out the area. Not much of a crowd there this time. It’s really the slow season for them. It was nice – no crowd means no waiting. We went to Yianni’s Greek Restaurant for some
cold beer and some Spanakopita (Greek Spinach
Pie – a pastry filled with spinach, feta cheese and some wonderful seasonings). Wow was that good! We walked around a bit then headed back to
Dunedin to the Hog Island Fish Camp for dinner.
Terese had told us about it and that her friend tended bar there. Of course, Terese didn’t steer us wrong. It was a great place! There website calls it “Salty” Southern Cuisine. Mike and I had Hogfish. That is something you usually don’t see on
the menu outside of the Keys. It is so
good! Then it was back to the boat for a
nightcap.
They headed out this morning going back to Bradenton. We really enjoyed hanging with them. Hopefully we’ll see them again soon. For now, we plan to hang out here in Dunedin
through October, then we’ll start working our way south back to the Keys. That is if we still own NautiNell. Who knows!
Stay tuned!
Till next time!
Admiral “C”
