If you are in the path of IRMA, please get out of her way, up to higher ground, not just further north or west in low-lying areas.  

Had a great Labor Day Holiday weekend in Shelter Island, NY and found many great variety of boats, from classic-looking trawlers, wooden sailing ships, to sleek, modern powerboats.  The Shelter Island area has many excellent soft bottom harbors that offer protection from most direction of winds.  It’s a nice change from our recent ventures into the rocky, exposed harbors along the coasts of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

 

For any cruiser, a good night’s sleep is a necessity, and blowing winds and seas are a challenge to even the best anchoring techniques and your personal ability to sleep through such events.  It’s important to watch a reliable local weather source for updates, and plan your anchorages  and passage times accordingly.  We deferred our Coecles Harbor departure to allow a front to move through while we remained at anchor.  The 35 knot gusts were a small reminder of how fierce and destructive hurricane force winds can be, especially on the water.

As we watch the news reports on some of our favorite cruising grounds, like the British Virgin Islands, we wondered the fate of the fleets and friends that we have experienced there.   Our last trip to Tortola was just in February and we haven’t heard or seen any reports from the people and charter companies that we have known.   (Update 9/22:  MarineMax reports that much of their power cat fleet survived reasonably intact and they plan to inspect and repair so that they can be up and running in December) It’s reasonable that in the wave of mass destruction,  business interruption, and subsequent rebuilding, there are more important things than FaceBook updates.

If you are in the potential path of IRMA, evacuate if you can.  Not everyone has a Richard Branson-quality wine cellar/bunker with enough elevation to know that it won’t flood during the storm surge.