As I sat down to recap all that happened with Hurricane Irma, Will told me I had to keep it to one blog post… Staring at him blankly my inner self screamed, “Irmagerd are you kerdin meh??” These were two of the most eventful weeks of 2017!”
So here goes… two weeks of hurricane sabbatical jammed into one simplified (yet lengthy) timeline.
Monday, Sept 4, 2017 – Labor Day!
What better way to celebrate Labor Day than a nice long jet ski ride to North Captiva Island, followed by pizza dinner at Junkanoo’s with your friends? Relaxing on the top deck of Wiffersnapper after dinner, scrolling through our phones in true Millennial fashion, Bobby announced that Florida was officially under a State of Emergency for Hurricane Irma.
“Already?” I thought, as our jokes of having a hurricane party turned into a serious trip to Walmart for survival supplies.
Tuesday – Prepping
We returned to work as usual, except the only focus was on Hurricane prepping and where the storm was headed. Once I found out the storm was wider than the entire state of Florida, it no longer mattered where it was headed. Texting the Wiffullens group chat, we came up with a new plan: Evacuate.
But what do we do with the boat? OMG! Our insurance expired Friday, and the lady still hasn’t responded to me about binding the new quote!
Multiple frantic calls later, I was told that a moratorium was in place, and that no insurance companies would bind any new policies until after the storm. Hanging up the phone I immediately burst into an ugly sob, as I secured what I could at the office and headed home to prep the boat for doom’s day.
Prepping the boat took HOURS, as did packing all of our life into our two vehicles, while fighting the terrifying thought that this could be our last night on Wiffersnapper. Yes, the storm forecast was THAT BAD, oh and Irma had a new friend, Jose.
Wednesday – Evacuate
After only 3 hours of sleep, we awoke to throw the cats in the car, hitch the jet ski, and hit the road; Destination: Unknown. Mom had been working hard to find family/friends for us to bunk with (thanks Mom, Penny and Uncle Greg), and Christina had a few options in mind too (thanks Bethany and Inspirato).
We were headed to South Carolina, since we had a few “free” options there, and ended up staying at a vacation home on Hilton Head Island that Christina’s company so kindly offered us.
Thursday – Hunker
Watching the news every two hours was our new hobby. We were sharing the house with other Inspirato workers who had evacuated their homes on the east coast of Florida, and wine was our new best friend.
We took a walk on the beach, and chuckled that we somehow still ended up on the beach with a major hurricane headed our way. That night we held a planning session, since it looked like the storm was coming right for us. We decided to see what the storm did overnight and make a decision the next day… wait, where’s Turbo?
Friday – Finding Turbo
Thursday night was one of the worst nights of the whole trip. Turbo went missing and we legit couldn’t find him anywhere. I woke up every few hours to go outside and call for him, and discovered the stupid stray cat was eating the food I set out. It wasn’t until Friday around 12noon that one of the other couples downstairs found Turbo inside their closet, a scared, smelly mess.
The weight of the world lifted off my shoulders for one whole second before we got right back to planning our next move. We didn’t actually have a choice, Hilton Head Island was under a mandatory evacuation as of 10am the next day. Oh, and the storm finally started to turn and looked like it was now aimed right at SWFL, fan-freaking-tastic!
Saturday – Evacuating, Again
We were pro’s at packing and evacuating by now. We headed about 25 miles inland to Bluffton, SC, where people were still freaking out even though the storm was no longer projected to impact the South Carolina coastline. This time we had a house to ourselves, which was nice not to worry about the cats going missing.
We did another Walmart run to restock on things we might need the next few days as we waited for Irma to hit Florida. That night, we enjoyed a traditional Wiffullens game of Taboo with a side of wine before deciding now would be a great time to binge watch the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Sunday – Irma Hits SWFL
You know the feeling when you wake up and get ready for a funeral that day? It’s an ire, sad, somber feeling. Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt on Sunday as I hesitantly opened my computer to check the latest forecast. There she was, heading right over our beloved getaway spot, Key West, and plummeting towards Marco Island, where Will and I have enjoyed riding the jet ski in the past.
It’s a very bad sign when Anderson Cooper and other “big name” reporters go live on the air from your hometown. With that, I went for a nice, kind of cold, run around the beautiful country club, getting lost more than once, but finding my way back eventually. Anybody up for watching Pirates #2 and #3?
Monday – Irma Hits Everywhere Else
The power flickered at 5am, and shut off shortly after. Great. I had been putting off checking the damage reports in Fort Myers Beach until the morning. Now I had no internet service, poor cell reception, and had to start conserving phone battery.
I managed to Facebook message a reporter that I saw was staying at the Diamond Head Resort on island. She said the marina didn’t appear to have any damage, which gave me a little bit of relief that she probably would have noticed a sunken boat or anything majorly out of the ordinary.
Yay, the power restored that evening! We cooked everything we had, knowing we wouldn’t have power back home in Florida.
Tuesday – Heading Back Home
With no real report on the boat’s condition, we were anxious to head back early and maybe avoid traffic of fellow returning evacuees. There was nothing but Florida license plates headed south on I-95. We passed a number of military convoys, along with a few groups of electric trucks headed south.
We stopped once or twice for fuel, knowing the further south we drove, the fewer supplies would be available. We waited in lines at the gas station, sat in the drive-thru only line of Hardees, which had no power, and finally made it to SWFL.
Riding through the area was a little hectic, with branches still laying in the roadways, and no traffic lights functioning. But we made it in time to see Wiffersnapper floating in her slip, right where we left her!
We had received a photo of her from our boat neighbors George and Debbie, who had arrived at the marina a few hours before us to check on everything. But there was nothing like seeing it with your own two eyes! She never looked more beautiful!
Oh God, dare I go inside and see if there was any water damage? The bed was wet, as our temporary window fix obviously ripped off with 140mph wind guests, but other than that, no water! One of our top seat cushions managed to fly off into the water, but luckily was retrieved by a fellow liveaboard.
It wasn’t until a few days later when the diver came to clean the bottom of our boat that we learned we had a bent propeller on our port side, and one of the poles on our swim platform came unbolted.
The entire bay drained right before the storm hit, leaving all of the boats sitting on the ground. Where other boats rested nicely in the mud and were undamaged, apparently ours rested on top of a rocky oyster bed, hence the bent running gear.
Wednesday – Holy Heat
September in SWFL is brutal without AC, and even worse without any sort of fan or air movement at all. It was our second night without power, and I contemplated sleeping on the top deck wearing the sports bra and underwear I had dubbed my new pajama’s.
We managed to unload the cars during the day, and had to stop once the heat index broke the point of suffocating inside the boat. I felt especially bad for the cats, since they are unable to cool themselves down like we can by sweating. But I shared my spaghetti-o’s with them to make up for it.
We took a jet ski ride to cool off and survey some of the damage from the water. The bayside homes and condos that had screened lanai’s covering their pools suffered the most damage.
There were a few boat lifts that failed, and almost every boat that was anchored out either ended up in the mangroves or sunken at the bottom of the bay. A sight that just breaks your heart as a boat owner.
Thursday – POWER! Sweet power.
After a few words with the marina staff about how all of the neighboring properties had power except us, they finally flipped the breaker for the docks, and we immediately cut the AC’s on. While I had cleaned out the fridge before we left, I forgot to leave the doors open, and therefore had a nice moldy surprise waiting for me as I went to unload the coolers.
The weekend consisted of getting the boat and our lives slowly back to normal, and going over Bobby and Christina’s to watch Pirates #4.
We rode the jet ski to Bonita Springs to check on our future wedding reception venue, which still had it’s hurricane shutters down and appeared to have done alright. “I can’t believe we still have another hurricane season to survive before our big day,” I exclaimed as I sat on the back of the jetski.
Monday came and we went back to work after our two-week sabbatical in the middle of September. While it was nice having time off, I was actually eager to get back to our normal routines, post-irma.
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