First let me say, all is well with Utopia and the Tallahassee area. However, we had a few nerve-racking moments throughout the storm.
Although Jimmy and I have been through several tropical storm events, each one brings on a bit of worry. It is a dance of figuring out how much preparation work needs to be done, and this storm was no exception.
About Time meets Hurricanes Irma & Michael
Our last boat, and house, felt the effects of the major Hurricanes Irma and Michael, along with several other tropical storms that required storm preparations for both boat and house. For the major hurricanes, we fully stripped down the boat which involved removing the bimini and all sails, before setting a lot of lines out just in case one chaffed through or the dock came off of the piles. During Irma, the water was sucked out of the canals, and About Time just leaned over onto the dock, which was now sitting on the ground, suffering no damage since we had plenty of fenders out. Hurricane Michael brought a huge storm surge that knocked the walls out of our house garage. The piles behind our house were tall enough so that About Time, and the floating dock, just simply rode up and down with the surge.
Utopia meets Hurricanes Ian & Idalia
Since we have had Utopia, we’ve now been through two hurricanes: Ian and Idalia. At one point last year, Hurricane Ian was projected to come up to Shell Point as either a tropical storm or a category 1. We drove down from Tallahassee to Utopia in Shell Point to tie up the head sails, bunch up the bimini with a some line to tie it in place, and we added a few extra lines to the dock. The next day the storm was upgraded, so we headed back to the boat to remove both the head sail and the staysail along with fully removing the bimini. Utopia was tied to a rickety, but floating dock, so we used several more lines to help her stay in place. After we completed all this work, we got into the car and drove back to Tallahassee, where we heard that the latest projection now had Ian heading to the Tampa Bay area. That is the way storm prep goes. I’d rather do the work and have the storm turn away than wait until the last minute to prepare the boat. Plus, it is best to remove the sails before the winds build. It turns out that Hurricane Ian ended up making landfall even further south in Florida, causing major damage to the heavily populated area of Fort Myers and Charlotte Harbor.
This year’s Hurricane Idalia brought some interesting challenges. The marina Utopia is located is a four- and half-hour drive south of our Tallahassee apartment in St. Petersburg off of Tampa Bay. The Thursday before Idalia’s landfall I had foot surgery. I spent Thursday through Saturday mostly sleeping while on strong pain medications. It may have been Saturday when it appeared that the hurricane could head to the Tampa Bay area as a category 1.
Sunday morning Jimmy headed to St. Petersburg to strip Utopia down for the storm. Since my pain was bearable enough and I needed to be able to take care of myself, I stopped taking the pain medicine, switching to lots of ibuprofen. Jimmy spent Sunday afternoon preparing the boat, unassisted. When he thought he had done enough, we learned that the storm could possibly be upgraded to a category 2. Although he was tired, he did a little more prep work after the news and called it a night.
He was on the road back to Tallahassee in the morning, before the 5 am update. By the time I got up and called him around 6 am to let him know it had been upgraded to a category 3, he was well down the road. For a cat 3, we probably should have removed the dinghy from the davits. For a cat 4 we should remove the mainsail and stack pack. But these efforts are difficult for a single person to manage. After some discussion, we decided to take our chances and Jimmy continued to head back to Tallahassee.
Throughout Monday and Tuesday, the projected path of the hurricane inched north, and eventually Tampa Bay was out of the cone possibility. With this shift in the projected path, Tallahassee became a potential target. By Tuesday evening, there was talk of Idalia being a category 4 storm aiming for Shell Point and Tallahassee. We received news that this could be worse than what Tallahassee experienced during Hurricane Michael in 2018. I must admit, I went to bed that night with a little bit of anxiety, hoping weather apps would sound off if conditions got bad, so that Jimmy, Baxter and I could hide out in the windowless 9th floor bathroom of our apartment building. I am glad I did not look at my phone after 11 p.m. as that is the report that definitely had Tallahassee in its cross hairs.
By the time the 5 am update came out, the storm was upgraded to a category 4, had turned eastward, and it appeared that it would make landfall 60 miles east of Tallahassee either as a category 3 or 4. By the time it made landfall at 7:45 am just shy of a category 4, it had turned to the rural area north of Cedar Key placing Tallahassee on the “softer” side of the storm.
While it looked like Tallahassee would be spared from the worst parts of the storm, and the eye was far north of Utopia, we still were concerned about the bands passing over Tampa Bay, and the possibility of tornados or straight line winds forming. Once it appeared that the last of the bands had passed through Tampa Bay, Jimmy called the marina and left a message asking for a report of conditions. They called back pretty soon to let us know that all was well. There was only one small mishap at a boat nearby us where a cleat on the dock came loose. Most likely he had several lines on his boat, so I am sure any damage would of been minimal.
We had originally planned to anchor out in Tampa Bay Labor Day weekend, but between stripping down the boat for the hurricane, and my foot still recovering from surgery, we stayed put at the dock this weekend. We passed through Perry on our way down, and it was sad to see the debris and damage caused by Hurricane Idalia. Upon arriving at the marina, we noticed that the lines holding Utopia were really stretched out. This is something I had not seen during Hurricanes Irma and Michael, where there were some strong winds with those storms. I suspect it is due to the fact that Utopia weighs twice as much as About Time (11 vs 5 tons). The other damage observed was to the vinyl side panels of our dodger. The little lines tying them down came free. I think that they flapped around in the wind, causing a fair amount of the stitching to unravel. This is something we can live with for a bit.
Future Hurricane Plans
There are still 6 weeks remaining in the active part of hurricane season. We are hoping to not have another storm come our way. When we move onboard mid-October, there will still be another 6 weeks left of hurricane season. We intend to pay for our slip for the remainder of this year’s hurricane season, providing us a place to duck into just in case we get a late season storm heading our way.
Next year, Utopia will spend hurricane season in a yard, stripped down and ready to take on what comes her way. The following summer we will be up around the Chesapeake Bay and New York areas. This will require us to monitor the weather closely and to keep an eye on various hurricane holes to hide out in should we need it.
Then for the summer 2026, we may head down to Granada to wait out hurricane season. Other places to wait out a hurricane season include Guatemala or Panama. But that is very far down the line when it comes to planning sailing destinations. We will all just have to wait and see where the winds take us.
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