Hurricane Ian Report from Sanford (We’re Ok!)

Thank you for all the support and thoughts during Hurricane Ian. We’ve been busy undoing our storm preps and catching up on sleep, but thought we’d take a moment to check in.

Quick answer.. everything is a-OK aboard Y-Not. She’s a champ. And so is her crew.

We ended up riding out the storm aboard, and Ian’s tracks and predictions continued to wildly change at every corner.

We did most our preps on Tuesday, including removing two of our solar panels, leaving two up. We left the decision for the canvas for the morning.

Winds and rain started to kick up Wednesday morning, but it was light enough that Chris and I got our morning run in before things got worse. We returned to the boat and finished up our preps, having decided to take the canvas bimini structure down – as predictions were worsening for our area.

Y-Not prepped for Ian.

Capturing storm water leaking in.

the most unprotected part of the marina

Saving a sinking vessel.

A boat about to break free.. we saved it.

Teaming up with Scott to render aid.

Things didn’t really start getting shaky until later in the evening, with the strongest predicted for around 2am. We managed a brief nap before we were shaken awake with Y-Not bucking like we were on the high seas.

From about 2am until 3pm it was an unrelenting ride with wind gusts into the 60s, and sustained in the 40s. We had driving sideways rain the entire time.

While Ian had been downgraded at this point to a tropical storm, we were getting the worst we’d get from the storm at this point – and he just parked a squall right over us as he pivoted out to sea.

But nothing we can’t handle, but sure were glad when it started to recede. It wasn’t until around 8 or 9pm that things started to feel any semblance of calm.

We kept busy and distracted by teaming up with our dock neighbor Scott aboard Blackjack Lady to render aid to other boats. We found about 7 that had broken most of their lines, and got them re-secured throughout the day. We also put a pump on a boat that was starting to sink (end result – it started right up the next day!).

The most harrowing was a tiny house boat that floats on our dock that had not been well prepared. It was on its last lines and was about to break free in the gusts. We did the best we could to secure it to anything we could before it set sail across the marina causing major damage to multiple vessels and docks.

In the end, it only yanked out a fence post. The owner and marina was most thankful for the outcome.

We didn’t sleep except for our brief nap for about 36-hours. Between our own experience and watching the horror of what was happening where Ian made landfall and getting reports of extreme damage – including the total destruction of Legacy Harbor Marina in Ft. Myers. We had spent 2 months there in our beginning boating days.

All and all, Downtown Sanford Marina (formerly Monroe Harbour Marina, the city recently took it over) did remarkably well. Only one boat sunk, but it had sunk at least once before the storm. Several broken cleats and lines, of course. E-Dock on the west basin did fail but with minimal boat damage – but it was already failing before the storm and was slated to be replaced soon.

We’re thankful that the worst damage for us was lots of leaks we had to tend to throughout the night.

High lake levels.. usually this is a beach.

Seminole Ave is flooded.

Flooded street.

Our gangway.. going DOWN.

There’s usually a sea wall out there! It’s underwater.

Now, Lake Monroe and the St. Johns River is at record flood stages and we’re expecting up to another 6-10″ of rise. The riverfront street is flooded, our break wall has crested and we’re having to walk down our gangway to get off our floating dock (usually we have a steep climb!).

Thankfully we still have about 4′ of piling for our docks to climb, so there’s no eminent danger to us except the loss of protection should other storms come through.

If you’d like a blow by blow account of our storm experience, we shared every few hours on our Facebook Page. And if we get the energy in the coming days, we might go live on our YouTube channel. But no promises.

We’ve gotten lots of questions about why we chose to stay aboard and what our decision making process is. Honestly, it’s a combination of knowing our boat and what she’s capable of, what we’re comfortable with, knowledge of the local area, back-up options and our resources.

Now 5.5 years into our boat ownership, our skills and comforts have definitely increased. But we still have our thresholds of what we’re willing to endure.

Here’s more on our thoughts of RVing and Boating during Hurricane Season.

We absolutely feel we made the right decision this time around, just as we made the right decision to evacuate for Irma five years ago.