Lately, we have been spending most of our time in Brunswick Georgia.  The marina at Brunswick Landing has been great. It is relatively easy drive from home unlike previous places where we had to get on a plane to be on our boat.  It has given us time to work on up-fit projects and in general spend time on the boat getting to know her.  It has also been helpful to be at a marina where advice is freely flowing along with all that great food and potluck dinners!

Smack in the middle of hurricane season, we quickly learned what it was like to own a boat when the weather reports even hinted at the possibility of a coming storm.  Much like first-time parents of a newborn, we felt nervous and naïve to hurricane prep – what did we need to do to the boat?  Do we remove the sails or just tie them down tightly?  How far in advance does this need to be done?  How much sustainable wind can our boat endure – it is a sailboat after all and wind is its friend, right?  We compromised, tying down the sails, but removing the soft top bimini completely.  It seemed right, but who knows. 

Where’s the Party!

We discovered preparing for a hurricane while at a marina is part work and part social.  Between the tasks of securing your boat, people would gather at the marina lounge to check in on weather and check in with others too on the best ways to prepare.  It was like getting ready for a big sporting event.  Complete with banter about which way the winds would come, theories about the effect of tides or another passing weather front.  Much like the pre-game analysis there were lots of predictions, exchanging of ideas and a party-like vibe in anticipation. 

We’d never been thorough a hurricane before.  And well as it turned out, we still haven’t.  Hurricane Dorian came across the Bahamas where it was an absolute beast, bounced along the east coast of Florida and turned north and east out to sea.  Whew!

A Tossed Freighter

A few days AFTER the storm was mostly gone something very unusual happened.  A freighter carrying 4000 cars left the nearby port of Brunswick around 3 am.  The seas were calm.  So too was the wind.  The captain and crew certainly felt they were safe after a couple weeks of worked up tension from Dorian that surely delayed their departure toward the middle east to deliver their cargo.  Then that unusual thing happened.  Just 4 miles from their departure on a journey meant to take them thousands of miles, the ship lost balance and simply rolled over on its side. 

Sometimes it does not matter if the storm is big or small, either can turn you on your side.

Go VIVID