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Wayne.B

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:22:05 -0400, wrote:

A fast moving cross over storm like Wilma can also ruin your entire
day.

Wilma came west to east across that buoy I referenced. Here on this
coast we really only have problems with storms from the gulf side.
Charlie was a hook shot that worked it's way around the tip of Florida
and came in over Sanibel/Captiva. We were watching the plot, looking
for "83" or higher. When the number started dropping we battened down.
Storms coming from the east get mitigated by crossing the land and the
surge is blown out into the gulf. We had one of those several years
ago that virtually drained the whole Estero Bay and Estero river. I
was able to get down the river in my 12' jon boat but I was stopped by
the mud before I got to the end of the spoil islands at the mouth. My
canal was just a puddle. I had to "port" across my neighbor's yard and
put in about half way across the river where there was a bit over a
foot of water.

When you're traveling and living on a boat you've got to be concerned
with all of them.

When Charlie came through 3 years ago we had only owned this boat for
about a month and were hanging out on a neighbors dock that was none
too sturdy. When they upped the forecast to category 3 on Wednesday
night we made a command decision to bail out and go up river. We rode
out the storm tied up to the big commercial pilings just below the
Ortona Lock, and right behind the Key West Fast Ferry out of Ft Myers
Beach. It turned out to be a good spot, well protected from tidal
surge as well as winds. It sure was an interesting day however. We
had power and internet connectivity right through the entire storm and
had our heart in our mouth when it made the right turn over Sanibel
and Captiva. Back in Cape Coral we had the only power (and air
conditioning) in the neighborhood for over a week. We had dinner
parties on the boat every night.