Hurricane Irma and Information on our Boat

We are trying to enjoy the fall activities, while still dealing with hurricane and insurance issues. Things are moving very slowly due to the massive amount of damage and the remote location.  We are being patient.

We know our fifth wheel is a total loss and are waiting for the insurance company to find a company capable of picking the pieces up and towing it away.

We are hoping to get more info on our boat today. It is stored on Venture Out property in a secured storage lot.  There are 100-150 boats in the lot, all in assigned spaces.  At least they were.  Now they are in a jumbled up mess. Some are some off their trailers, some on top of other boats and in all kinds of conditions.

It is a big mess and one boat can't be moved without the risk of damaging others.   It needed to be a coordinated well thought out operation.

With the extent of other damages, the boat lots were not the highest priority and we completely understood that.  There are still people without electricity to their lots.  Ours included since our Rv destroyed our power and water pedestals.  Many homes were destroyed or badly damaged.  I do not believe anyone escaped some sort of damage.

The other night, we got a message from the HOA president stating Sea Tow has been contracted to begin untangling the boats and that we would all be responsible to pay their fees.  Sea Tow is the company many of us use in case we breakdown offshore, they will tow you in. They were bringing in a crane and if your boat needed crane services, the cost would be $175 a FOOT!  Most boats would need some sort of crane service to right the boats or put them back on the trailers.  We weren't given any choices, or notice that this was being done and no further explanation was given.

Needless to say, we were extremely upset knowing this had all been decided for us without any input, or the opportunity to involve our insurance companies.  We were going to have  a $3000 bill to move our boat when we had insurance that would have taken care of it with no cost to us.

After a day of phone calls, and research, we found out that marine salvage was a whole new deal and could not be done by just anyone.  There was the possibility of spilled fuel and battery acid that needed to be considered.  Plus the liability of  possibility damaging another boat while trying to get your boat out.

We determined these charges were pretty much standard, and that most insurance companies would pay Sea Tow's outrageous fees. I think these charges are excessive but it was not my call and as long as Progressive pays the bill, we will not argue.  I'm sure it will be expensive picking up our trailer as well. I am sure there are boats with no insurance which would leave these ridiculous fees up to the boat owner.

We saw a post on Facebook the other day where a guy was looking for someone to pick up his car.  He had no insurance on it because he didn't use it during the summer and took the coverage off.  A lot of people do that but you always need to leave comprehensive coverage on it and this is a perfect example why.

I made a phone call to Progressive who insures both our boat and trailer and confirmed Sea Toy was one of their contractors and there should be no problem with them paying for their fees for our boat. I will feel better when I know that for sure.

I then contacted Sea Tow and Progressive and got an appraiser scheduled to inspect the boat today once it was moved away from the other boats.  They are not allowing anyone on the boat lots except employees of Sea Tow and Insurance adjusters.  We do not think our boat will be a total loss, but until the adjuster is able to inspect it, we won't know for sure.  We do not know what kind of water intrusion we got or if there was any damage to the motor.

This is an example of what Sea Tow has to deal with.

The small boat facing out in  the picture below is ours.  As it turns out, our boat had been shifted from our trailer a little bit, but our boat and trailer was on top of another trailer.  We will definitely need crane services.

 The Proline boat is ours. You can see how tight of a space it is in.  We were not able to view the motor at all.   You can see what was probably the waterline on our boat.

This is also part of our boat and the jumbled mess it is in.

This is a picture we took from above with our drone. Our boat is towards the left next to the white car with the yellow cushion and bait bucket in the front.

These were also  taken from our drone from above and a good example of what they have to deal with.

We knew it wasn't going to be an easy job to separate all these boats without damaging others.

I am also in the process of making a detailed list of every item that was in our trailer that we were not able to salvage. 

I am trying to document our Hurricane Irma adventures so I apologize for another boring disaster post.  We have been doing fun things and I have some pictures taken from our drone and of our adventures.   We are doing ok and dealing with this one step at a time.

Hurricane Irma and Damage to Our Rv

Blairsville, Ga (high 75, low 46)

In case you haven't been following my blog, you can catch up HERE

We are now back in Georgia after a very hot and tiring trip down to the Keys.  We felt we should go down to inspect our Fifth Wheel and boat, and to see if we could salvage anything. We left the beautiful mountains and the cool weather to go to the heat and destruction in the Florida Keys.

We (the cats included) were exhausted after our trip and were so glad to be back in Georgia. 

We stayed with my cousin and her wife who have a home in Key West. Thankfully they only had  minimal damage.  They had evacuated to North Carolina and just got back a day or two before we arrived.  They were generous enough to invite all of us (kitties too)  to stay with them, even though they were still trying to get their house and property back to normal after their evacuation.

The eye of the hurricane struck Cudjoe Key (where our lot is) and spared Key West from the worst damage, and was lucky to have been on the "good" side of the storm.  Key West  lost a LOT of trees and some were real heart breakers, but for the most part they did pretty well. There is a lot of clean up to be done, but they are doing their best to open back up for tourism.  Too many jobs depend on tourism and the people need to get back to work.  More and more restaurants and bars are opening up every day.  As of October 1st, Key West is officially open for tourism.  A little beaten and battered for sure, but open for business.  Cudjoe, Marathon, Big pine and the lower keys are NOT ready for tourism and it will be a while before anyone even wants to go to that part of the Keys.

We didn't do any sightseeing in Key West and only went to the places we needed to go. The heat was so overwhelming that it sapped every bit of your energy.  I remember why we don't go to the Keys in the summer.

On our drive  down from Tampa we didn't see too much damage until we left the mainland and got into the Keys. The further south in the Keys we drove, the more damage we saw.  It was bad in the upper Keys, but once you entered Marathon, it kept getting worse and worse. The hardest hit was Marathon, Big Pine, Ramrod, and Cudjoe Key.  The eye of Hurricane Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key, but I think Big Pine Key had even worse damage than we did in Cudjoe Key.

The first days and weeks were bad for those who had not evacuated. They were not allowing anyone back into the Keys until they could inspect the bridges, and clear power lines, boats and debris off the roads. There was no power, no running water, no sewer, no hospitals, no fuel and no police, except the few that volunteered to stay.  There were a lot of emergency management folks from FEMA, the military, the insurance companies, Red Cross and many more. There were linemen from about every state in the country along with about as many tree companies from various states.  They were a huge blessing and without all their help, it would have never gotten done.  There was free water and ice being given out and even free meals. You could get medical help, tetanus shots and there were even free veterinary clinics, which of course I particularly liked.

The electric didn't come back on for days and then just a little bit at a time. The upper Keys got their power back fairly quickly, but  Cudjoe Key only got electric (and air conditioning) back yesterday, which was over three weeks after the storm!

We made a quick stop at our lot to survey the damage in person.  We needed to drop the cats off at Anne and Jan's so we couldn't stay long.  It was even more devastating than we thought to actually see it in person.  We had seen pictures, but nothing prepares you for the real thing.

This is Spanish Main Drive.  It is the road that leads into our community and the hurricane devastated the power grid.   You can tell why it took three weeks to restore the power.  

This is the underside of our fifth wheel.  The emergency responders go around to check for dead bodies and mark the homes with the orange paint. Fortunately, ours had a 0 in the bottom part of the X which indicated no one was found inside.   :)

When I first saw this picture, of the orange paint for some reason it really hit me hard and made me cry.   It made it really hit home, I guess. This is the bottom of our fifth wheel.

Since our trailer was so spread out, I guess they felt the need to paint ours twice, once on the bottom and once on the other side.  This is on the living room slide.  You can see the microwave sitting on the top. We never could figure out how it got up there, but two shell magnets were still stuck to the sides.  Those are two of the items we were able to salvage.  

You can see the travel trailer upright next to ours. It was moved a little and the hurricane anchors were pulled out of the ground, but it appears to have survived.  Of course we don't know if any water got inside.

We feel certain a tornado caused our damage because of the extensive damage to ours and not to the others around us.  Hurricanes always spin up tornadoes. One picture I took shows where our frame was actually bent apparently from the tornado.

This is the front of our fifth wheel.  It did not touch the trailer next door.  His car even seemed to be fine.

We dropped the kitties off and then Anne and Jan insisted on coming back with us to help us retrieve anything that we could. They had already spend half the day helping friends on Ramrod Key and I'm sure going back out in the heat was the last thing they wanted to do.  

One man in our community actually died from heat stroke and another was hospitalized for several days.  You could not drink enough water to make up for that heat. We all felt the effects of the heat and could easily have gotten heat stroke.

Our community is a mixed use resort with high rise homes on stilts like you see here.  Midrise, old trailers and rv lots.  There are 659 lots here and I didn't see even one without some sort of damage.  Some damage was obviously worse than others. 

We found some of our things in the debris, some water damaged, some broken and some stuff was actually good.  

If you look carefully, underneath the slide is our bent power pedestal.

This is one of the hurricane anchors Al installed before we left in June.  He rented an auger that drilled down into the very hard coral rock.  It was next to impossible to drill through and poor Al nearly killed himself doing it.   The winds pulled them right out of the ground.  The chains held though.

This post is long enough so I will stop here and come back soon with more of the story.  Yes, we did find the boat.  Sort of.

To end the post on a positive note:   Meet Mulligan.  She is Anne and Jan's pup.  She cheered us all up every day.  

Decisions to Make

Blairsville, Ga (high 80, low 58)

Things are a mess in the Keys.

Fortunately, Key West was spared the brunt of the storm, thank goodness.  Key West is such a beautiful and special town, full of history, large old trees and beautiful architecture and although there is damage, it could have been worse.  My cousins house is fine.  No flooding.  A tree or two and some fencing down.  They still do not have consistent power, water, or flushable toilets so they have no urgent need to rush back down.


Information is trickling in, little by little.  Things are not good.  Electricity and cell service is very very limited.   There is limited or no sewer service.  Running water is limited and needs to be boiled but with no electricity, that's an issue.  We did find out that our neighbor Randy who rode out the hurricane, was unharmed and had made his way to the mainland for much needed supplies.

Up until yesterday, most residents were  still being kept out to make room for first responders to remove downed power lines, trees across the roads, washed out roads and to make sure the 46 bridges were safe.  Residents were getting angry.   Many people have damaged property that needs to be secured from the elements and they are very anxious to return home. People are worried about looting. Some people have run out of money and have no food or gas.  Food, water and fuel is still very limited in the Keys.   The powers that be finally relented and as of today have opened up the Keys to residents only and a curfew is strictly enforced.   I have even heard that they are now allowing open carry,  which means you can carry a weapon and not conceal it.

We have two Aircraft carries offshore in Key West proving help, along with the National Guard.   I've seen pictures of Chinook helicopters landing in the grocery store parking lots.  Military is out in force cleaning up.  They are sleeping on cots wherever they can find a place.  God bless them all for helping.  The temperatures are stifling.  Much of the shade has been destroyed and of course there is no air conditioning.


We  already knew our RV had been destroyed from the aerial photos we had seen, but Friday we got some taken from the ground.

To say it was a shock was an understatement.

Most of us have seen news reports from different catastrophes where they paint the red "X"s on property after they check for bodies. These marks identify the agency that inspected, the date and time and on the bottom the number of fatalities. A big "0" means no fatalities.

Someone went around in a golf cart taking video of each street. It was pretty fast but we were able to identify our lot and rig.  Oh the video, you could hear them comment "oh my God" when they saw ours.

Sorry for the bad quality of these pictures.  They were screen shots from a video.  The white Wildwood that is still standing is not ours.   Ours is the pile of rubble to the right of it.

For some reason, seeing the orange marks on our RV hit me really hard. It's something you see on the news all the time, but man, it really hits home when it's on your home.  The furniture sitting outside got to Al more than me.  I never liked that furniture.  haha

The following picture shows it from another angle. This is the bottom of the RV.  More orange writing

We do not know why our RV came apart like it did, when others did ok.  We think it was mostly because ours was hit broadside with Cat 4 winds with nothing to buffer the wind.  Our lot is near the open water with a row of tall stilt houses as the only thing that is in front of us. The stilts allow all the open air to rush right onto ours broadside. The open air that always gave us such a nice afternoon breeze was our downfall.  We are guessing the broadside wind found an opening and tore it apart. Perhaps we buffered the Wildwood next door because it looks to be in pretty good shape.   The stilt houses did fine, but those stilts did not block any wind from hitting us.  Perhaps it was a small tornado, but whatever it was, it did a good job on our RV

We have filed a claim with Progressive. I am so thankful we have Progressive because as a former claim adjuster, I know them to be fair and professional.   We even got a call from USAA since they referred us to Progressive since they don't write full coverage on rv's in Florida. They offered their assistance if we had any issues with Progressive.   A team of CAT adjusters will be in the Keys as soon as they are allowed.   We have $15,000 in additional coverage for contents. We should be ok there but I don't think they won't cover anything outside the rv. Unfortunately the contents will be depreciated depending on the age.  Now, we need to start making a list of everything in the RV.

We have no more info on the boat other than a picture of the storage lot where it was located.  We do not know which is our boat.  Hopefully it is not a total loss.  Fortunately, it is also insured with Progressive.

So what do we do now?  Go down and try to salvage some of our things?  Deal with no power or air conditioning, no water, sewer, cell service?   We don't think much from inside the RV will be salvageable, but who knows. We are hoping to find our scuba tanks, bikes and stuff like that.

The thought of going down with no AC is not something we want to do. We would prefer power was restored so that our one night we have to spend there will not be miserable. Will it be worth the trouble for the amount  we are able to salvage?  We just don't know.

 There will be no hotels available but fortunately my cousin offered us the use of their home in Key West. I think they are inclined to wait for the AC to be restored before they go back.  They were nice enough to offer us the use of their home even before they get back, but I doubt we will do that.

To add another problem, there is a new potential hurricane heading along the same path as Irma. The models are showing it as a Cat 3 and heading towards the same islands that were decimated the last time.  No one knows where she will go, but we sure do not want to be in the Keys trying to evacuate for another storm.

So, that is our dilemma.  Since people are heading back today, I'm sure a lot more information will be coming out.  We will give it a few days and make a decision.

We have been watching videos of the destruction in the Keys. It's heartbreaking.

Here are a few pictures of our beloved Florida Keys from the past. The Keys will recover and be the beautiful place we love again.  Many people assume we won't be going back to the Keys anymore.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It is our winter home, we love it there and we will be back.

Would you believe, this tiki hut survived?  A little windblown I'm sure.

Happier days on our patio.

Some the decorations we had that we hope we can find.

I really want to find my wonderful bike.

Not the Kind of Email You Want

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 90, low 90)

It’s getting mighty hot here in the Keys.

Al and I had a discussion yesterday about when we are leaving the Keys. I find it hard to believe it’s not summer everywhere and when I see pictures of snow, it shocks me to realize it’s not July or August!

We want to get some more boating days before we leave, but I’m thinking we need to leave in about 2 more weeks, so that we can spend some time in Tampa with Mom before we head to the mountains.

 

So, the last post, I mentioned a disturbing email we received while in Key West at the parade.

 

This is what we learned:

A a boat was fueling up at our marina and put approximately 20 gallons of fuel in their rod holder, rather than their fuel tank.
Just wanted to let everyone know the situation is under control. The Fire Department and the Coast Guard are here and we are taking every precaution as directed by them. We are waiting for a licensed salvage operation to come and pump the fuel out of the bilge.

Until the boat is out of the water the Fire Department has asked that everyone stay away from the boat ramp, marina, salt water swim area, and TGIF area as a precaution, as well as to not interfere with the salvage operation.

The situation should be resolved shortly and there is NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. The Fire Department and Coast Guard are well equipped to handle this situation and are doing their best to resolve it as quickly as possible.

 

UPDATE

The salvage company will be here at 7am to pump out the fuel and remove the boat. All fuel is still contained within the boat. The authorities believe it is safer to perform a pump out during daylight hours. We have a guard standing watch at the boat ramp overnight to ensure no one goes near the area. Please stay clear until the salvage operation is complete.

UH OH. Somebody had a very bad day!

When we got back home at about 11pm (yes believe it or not, we actually stayed out past dark) the boat ramp was blocked off.  We could see the boat still in the water and there was yellow crime scene tape all over the area. 

We had planned on going out in the boat the next morning, but at 7am the salvage guy still hadn’t arrived.

Everyone else was there waiting.

We had a difficult time understanding how someone could pump 23 gallons of fuel into the rod holders.  The fuel tank has a screw on lid, the rod holders are wide open.  What we were told was that he took the fuel cap off, then the boat moved a little for some reason and when he put the fuel nozzle into the fuel tank, he accidently put it into the wrong hole.   Alcohol involved?   We wondered.

So 23 gallons of gasoline was all pumped into the bilge of the boat, which is between the floor and the hull.  You have an automatic bilge pump that pumps water out of the bilge when necessary.  We assume he turned off the bilge pump, but could that cause a spark?  We noticed he left his GPS on overnight, so maybe he was told not to touch anything electrical.

It was a fire and an environmental  hazard and the fire department was taking it very seriously.

We watched the action from a distance.

I felt sorry for the firemen in their suits. It was terribly hot, even at 8am.

The salvage guy was supposed to arrive at 7am, but he was late.  Not only could no one use the marina, but no one could get boat fuel either, and several boats were turned away.  People come from all over to buy our fuel and there are not a lot of other options by water.

Finally the salvage guy came and proceeded to start pumping out the fuel.  The guy on the dock in the white t-shirt is boat owner/guilty party.

The salvage guys were very, very careful to not spill any more fuel into the water than necessary.  What little leakage they had was cleaned up with a skimmer and absorbent towels.  The fuel was pumped into those plastic jugs.  At $3.59 a gallon, this guy wasted 23 gallons of fuel!

The fire crew was ready, just in case.

If you ever need a clean up crew. These guys are available.  :)

I’m sure this was a very, very expensive lesson for this boat owner.  The fire department, EMT, Coast Guard, and clean up people were all there for various periods of time.   His boat liability insurance should have covered this bill, but we saw him giving the clean up guy his debit card.  He will get a bill from the Coast Guard, Fire Department and EMT more than likely.  This is a good lesson on why we all need to carry plenty of liability insurance.  Can you imagine if that boat had caught fire by the fuel docks?

The clean up took about 4 hours and once they all left we were finally able to get our boat into the water.   We headed offshore to Looe Key Reef and did some snorkeling on a shallow part of the reef.

Here are a few shots I took of a school of parrotfish.

Can you spot the little hogfish in the foreground towards the right side?  That is our favorite fish to eat.

 

Here is another of a hogfish.

 

We snorkeled around for awhile then came up with the intention of moving to another spot.   Once we climbed into the boat, we realized  it was getting pretty choppy and it would take us longer to get back in, so we decided to head back home.  We had a big night planned in Key West.  That was the night for the Conch Republic Battle on the waterfront.

Stay tuned.  It was a fun night full of toilet paper, water canons, and fun.

Fraud Alert

 

Yesterday, we got home from a day out in the boat and intended to relax on the patio and enjoy a little happy hour.

I brought out my laptop, my cocktail and proceeded to enjoy my evening but I was immediately stopped in my tracks with an email from out bank stating was suspicious activity on our account.

After looking at the email from Bank of America, I noticed a link that would allow me to sign on to our account.   I was suspicious and felt certain the email was a scam, but clicked on the link anyway. (probably shouldn’t have)  I never intended to give my password information to try to log onto our bank accounts.

A few days prior to this Rick did a post about the Heartbleed bug.  You can read it HERE.

Rick suggested if you used Google Chrome (which I do, thanks to Rick’s recommendation) you should get their extension to tell you if the Heartbleed bug was on any programs you were using.

As soon as I clicked on the link from the email supposedly from the bank, I got the notification warning me of the Heartbleed bug on the site I was on.

At this point, I noticed another dead give-away in a misspelled word in the email.  Another clue. 

I called the bank to make sure nothing was wrong on our accounts and was assured everything was fine.  They asked that I forward the fake email to them, which I did.

So…..thanks Rick!   I had figured out already that I had an issue, but the warning from Chrome sealed the deal, that and the misspelled word.

 

I mentioned that Al had another mishap yesterday.   He is okay, but is a bit sore.

We had gone out boating and were loading the boat onto the trailer at the marina.  He backed the trailer into the water and waded out to guide the boat on the trailer.

As he was walking towards the trailer, he slipped on some slimy algae covered concrete. He fell hard, landing on his butt, and  breaking the fall with his elbow.  He is sore all over today, but it doesn’t appear anything is broken.  Poor Al.

That was the third event from our day of boating.

The first one was after we were out a few miles in the Kemp channel, heading to the back country to do some fishing.

I went to get my camera to take a picture of a dolphin and realized the “blue bag” was missing.   Uh oh.  It had my camera, his wallet (fishing license) and phones.  

When Al carried the blue bag out from the motor home, he put it in the back seat of the truck, where it was easily forgotten.  I thought he had put it in the boat and only realized it was missing when I went to get my camera.

So, our choice was to stay out with no phone  or fishing license or go back to shore?  Although we do have a marine radio, I kind of like having a phone along for emergencies.   So, we decided to head back in to pick up the bag. 

When we got back to the dock, we decided to pull up to the gas pumps and top off our tank.

The truck had just come that morning and filled up the fuel tanks, so we were expecting a price increase, but the sign still said $4.93 a gallon.

After we topped off the tank, Al went inside to pay, and the park manager came by.  He asked if we had gotten our fuel yet, because he was getting ready to change the price of the gas, but wanted to wait for us to get our gas at the lower price.  I watched as he changed the numbers.

Here is the NEW fuel price for the non-ethanol marine fuel.

Yikes!   We got a deal at only $4.93.

    

Regular gasoline is $3.79 a gallon, but it’s worth it for the sake of the new motor to pay the difference for the non-ethanol fuel.   Good thing our new motor is more fuel efficient than the old one!

Al thinks he is off the hook for the missing blue bag, since it allowed us to get gas for the pre-increase prices.  I’m wondering how much we really saved by having to go back in those few miles.  :)

The next issue was someone forgot to secure the lid on the 5 gallon bucket we keep in the boat and it was missing.   I won’t say who that person was, but it may be enough to say it was the third “oops” of the day for that person.   :)

We finally got back out on the water for some fishing. We got on a good spot and were seeing fish on the fish finder.  Al caught a small grouper, but as we sat there, we noticed the seas were building a little. It wasn’t much fun rocking and rolling while trying to fish or read, so we decided to go back closer to shore where it was calmer.  It was definitely calmer, but the fish were not there.  Al did a little snorkeling, but only saw a barracuda and another small grouper.  The water temperature was 83 degrees though, so he was happy.

 

After we came home, we decided to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful full moon.  It peaks through the palm trees in just the perfect spot.  It comes up over the Atlantic.

We waited for it to get dark and then went over to the hot tub.

The pool and the hot tub are right near the water, overlooking the Atlantic.  It’s the perfect place for them.

Here is a photo of the hot tub enclosure.  This was taken during daylight, but you can see the lattice for privacy and the open top.  You get a wonderful sea breeze and if the moon is in the right place, you can see the moon over your head.  It’s wonderful.

 

When we got to the hot tub, it was occupied with 4 very noisy people having a really good time.  We decided not to ruin their party, so we went for a swim in the pool while we were waiting for them to leave.  The pool was nicely heated and it felt wonderful, even for me.  I like very warm water and have absolutely no objection to pool water temps of 90 degrees!

When we got out of the hot tub, we noticed the bright full moon over looking the ocean and right behind a palm tree.  It would have been a beautiful photo, so we went home for the camera.  By the time we got back, the moon was much higher in the sky and the picture wasn’t quite as spectacular.

 

It was one of those special moments that I try to put down in my memory so that I can later recall the beauty and the feeling I get when I see such beauty.

We stood there for a long time enjoying the moon over the Atlantic.

 

 

Sorry for so many repeat pictures, but I cannot choose between them all.

It was a special night.  We’re hoping to re-live it again tonight.  Time to go to the hot tub.