YINSANITY and her crew are safe from Hurricane Dorian. We’ve been in a hotel for the past five days waiting to see what was going to happen. Originally Hurricane Dorian was forecasted to hit Central Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, near where we were anchored in Brevard County Florida.
We were able to tie Yinsanity to a dock in Titusville, Florida and get a hotel room on Sunday. We made friends with several experienced sailors at the marina that helped us tie our catamaran down and prepare her for the wind and rain. We are so thankful for their help because this was our first hurricane as sailors and Mike's first hurricane ever. Mike and Jim, one of the sailors, have been communicating and Jim drove each day to check on his boat and sent pictures of ours. How sweet is that!
While we were preparing the catamaran, Dorian turned left and hit the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane with wind gusts from 185 mph to 220 mph. It was so scary at the marina because we were new to storms and even the experienced sailors were getting worried. We heard so many huricane stories from our new friends. However, not one of us had experienced a Category 5 hurricane while owning a boat. Mike called our insurance company and gave them our details about location, I taped up the hatches then put everything inside in plastic bags. Mike and Jim put several double lines on the boat then double checked the fenders. I took down the bimini and took lots of pictures for insurance, then we all said goodbye and retreated to our hiding places.
We got lots of food and booze for our hurricane party at the hotel The storm stayed over the Bahamas for so long that we didn't start seeing rain and wind until Tuesday evening. We got some heavy rain and wind gust up to 40 mph. We are so incredibly lucky that the storm turned North and scrapped the Florida East Coast.
This is a historic storm because there hasn't been a storm this large in the Atlantic Ocean then it was stalled for over 24 hours causing devastation to the Bahamas. We were very worried that it could possibly turn and hit us at any moment. The rain and winds have finally died down but now I worry for my sailing and land dwelling friends in South Carolina.
This could have easily been us in devastation rather than the Bahamas, Let’s help them recover their lives. Anything we can do will help.
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