Preparing for Hurricane Ian (We’re Back in Sanford!)

A little bit of a diversion from the travelogue for a real time update. We returned to Sanford, Florida last week and are back aboard Y-Not. After a relatively quiet hurricane season, we of course have returned to Hurricane Ian.

We’ve been fielding a number of questions on our status/plans.

The track is looking to go up the west coast of Florida with landfall somewhere likely above the Tampa area to the panhandle.

However, hurricanes aren’t localized and their wrath can spread much further.

We’re well inland of the west coast here in Sanford, and current projections have us with high probability of tropical storm conditions.

The wind projections don’t frighten us too much, and there’s no threat of storm surge (but rising lake levels can be a concern). But little wobbles between now and then can drastically change things for the better or worse.

We’re keeping a close eye on everything, constantly refreshing the NHC website and Tropical Tidbits.

Thankfully, we’re already pretty well storm prepped – having left Y-Not behind intending to be gone for hurricane season while we were out in the van. Everything is already inside and we always keep double lines & plenty of fenders out (summer storms in Central FL can be intense!). We will toss a couple more lines on.

We’ve already run the engines and generator to confirm they’re all ready to go if needed. We don’t currently have an inverter (long story), so are making power setup adjustments for likely outages to run most stuff directly off battery/solar. We’d have to run the generator anyway for A/C, so not too concerned about the fridge (we also have a 24v freezer, plus Blooper’s fridge in the parking lot). We’ve started freezing several containers of water to use as back-up cooling if needed.

We’ll top up all water tanks, black tank just got pumped (plus we have a composting toilet on board), and fuel tanks are near full.

We’ll continue to monitor conditions and make a decision tomorrow if we go to the effort to take down Starlink, antennas, the bimini structures and/or secure the solar panels more.

We’re currently planning to stay aboard, but Blooper will be setup and ready to bug out to local friends/family. Our biggest concerns are rainfall (lake levels are already pretty high), debris, other boats (we’ll monitor and assist), and dock failure.

Having gone through Irma in the Keys 5 years ago.. we’re well aware of the risks. We’ve seen and lived in utter post-storm devastation. Going through tropical systems is nothing new for us.

And we’ve previously written about our approach to hurricanes for both RV and boat.

We’re consulting with other dock-mates who have gone through storms at this marina before as our guidance.

So please… no unsolicited ‘advice’. We’re as prepared and ready for this as we can be. We’ve made our own hurricane plan based on our knowledge, resources and experience. And we have our own traumas from Irma to navigate to keep from panic attacks. This post is simply to keep you informed and up to date. Replies of well wishes are always appreciated however.

If you’re in the path too.. we trust you’re making the right preps for your situation. Be safe. Stay informed. And don’t panic.

 

Hopefully this all just blows over, and we’ll be back to catch you up on the remainder of our van adventures!.