When they evacuate the marina, get out... Hurricane Zeta

[Pearson365Guy]

I cannot understand why some folks feel like they will be fine, or cannot set aside time to get their boat out of harms way...

[ohdrinkboy]

sometimes the owners are hours away and the boat is not their highest priority.

[tkeithlu]

Looks like you had a bit of a storm surge there.

Convenient way to collect insurance?

No river to go up to a hurricane hole?

Not enough time between warning and storm arrival?

Tired, given the third storm in two months?

Lots of reasons. Of course, the first problem may be living in Gulfport. That's one municipality that never has to worry about urban renewal. They get a fresh start every decade or so.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

sometimes the owners are hours away and the boat is not their highest priority.

2 years ago I heard of a direct hit where I parked my boat (Irma), but due to flooding(Harvey), I wasn't able to get there until too late.

Fortunately my boat was well secured as I anticipated a busy hurricane season, and I neighbor was able to check on it to insure bilge pumps were working.

The docks pictured were one sided docks facing the waves with no piling to secure on the other side.

This is a danger in a storm.

I always tie both sides even if i have to walk down the docks to do so, and cross lines with neighbor, and insist they do the same.

After several hurricane direct hits, my boat is still there, but boats tied only on one side were upside down on top of their neighbor boat, or the dock.

I've seen several dozen boats do this. usually with catastrophic results, and complete loss.

[Pearson365Guy]

Could be the insurance, not sure. We have plenty of hurricane holes, that's where my boat is at the moment. As for notice they had this storm pointing at us before it even got into the gulf.

I could see the tired issue, we've had 5 evacuations this year alone. Its been a terrible year for the northern gulf coast.

The biggest problem I have with others not leaving, is that their boats go crashing through the harbor, damaging finger piers, dock boxes, and power pedestals. It really extends the time of getting back into the marina.

Very true about the renewal here, we seem to get blown out every 10-15 years. Still plenty of empty lots and downed trees from Katrina. We do have a storm surge problem with our geographic location.

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

Where were the pics taken? Bay St. Louis?

[Pearson365Guy]

Gulfport, MS (Municipal marina)

[sailorboy1]

5th mandatory excavation at Gulfport this year! One finally actually got it. I am sure glad this wasn't last year when i was there!!

[LouK]

Damn, that's a mighty strong fence!

[Scaramanga F25]

5th mandatory excavation at Gulfport this year!

How deep did they dig?? LOL I just had to>

[davenrino]

Really? Where would I go? We have no hidey holes and I am sure as hell not going out to sea. Fortunately we don't have many storms on Oahu. Tsunamis are a different story and I do want to go to sea if enough warning. The marina even requires a backup person capable of evacuating if the owner isn't able.

[Kd9truck]

I I’m in a mooring field with 200+ Other boats, mostly S/Vs. very few come down any secure sails, dodgers, biminis, solar panels, life rings, even fewer add mooring lines for redundancy when a big blow is predicted.

[jhulmer]

It happens in all the marinas I've been in on the gulf coast. I was in Gulfport in the 1980s and in one case by the time I got to the marina, from out of town, it was blowing oysters off the rocks. I was alone and the harbor master told me I had to leave right then. He huffed and puffed and threatened to have me towed out of the marina and anchored. In the end he did nothing but threaten. It takes about 4 hours to go out to sea and down the coast to enter a shallow channel into the back bay and then another 3 or 4 hours to navigate up one of the rivers. I told the harbor master he couldn't order me out into that crap. Most of the boats had left and I had lots of room to secure my boat in the fairway. She did just fine but it wasn't my preferred way to ride out the storm. Fortunately, it was a glancing blow and only saw 50-60 kts and surge about 10 feet.

I moved to Biloxi Point Cadet Marina since then and it is much easier to get to the back bay and up the river. I have been fortunate this years as I have my boat inland doing a refit.


A friend had his boat in the yard in Biloxi and was very fortunate to survive all 5 storms. THis one almost got him, The little boat in the picture floated in and knock off 2 of the 4 stands on the port side. Another foot or two of surge and he would have floated.

[barnakiel]

It is different when the owner is simply far away. Nothing can be done beyond good will of the boatyard / marina staff.


b.

[tkeithlu]

The point on tying both sides is well taken. We tie both sides when a storm is coming, which is inconvenient and makes getting on and off the boat tricky. But, in Hurricane Micheal with a 9.5 foot storm surge, the boat went straight up and straight down, with the only damage being water in the radar dome.