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.

RV Temperature Alert for Pets, and Fun on the Island

 

Wesley Chapel, Fl  (high 90, low 68)

 

Things are about the same here. 

Our friend Cindi is still in the hospital.  The doctors are waiting for some test results and then hopefully she will be released and can recover.

We still have her dog Kujo.  He is doing well and seems happy.  We love dogs.  We love other peoples dogs, but we don’t want a dog.  Cats are so much easier.   He is a good dog, but he’s a dog, and we don’t want a dog.

 

 

Now that we have the boat here, we have been taking every opportunity to use it.  With the hot Florida weather, we always worry about leaving the cats alone inside the motorhome.  If there should be a power outage, or the AC quits, they could quickly overheat and could die by the time we got home.

We  have a camera set up in the motorhome and I can look at the thermometer inside the coach from my phone and check on the cats.   It is a great thing to have, but requires internet and of course I have to remember to check.  I began searching for an alternative that would work without internet, and that would send me alerts if the temperature got too high.  I finally found another system that will do the job. You set the alerts for the high and lows you want and it will send you a text if the RV gets too hot or cold (yeah right).  

I found this gadget here:  Cell Sign Technology

Here is what it looks like.

I’m not exactly sure how it works, but it has a Sim card inside and works much like a cell phone does for texts. You have to purchase the unit, which is $119.  Then you pay $13.50 a month for the sim card alerts.   You can cancel at any time and there are no contracts.  It’s well worth the money for my peace of mind.  We love our kitties and would feel horrible if something were to happen to them while we were gone.

It does not require internet, but you do have to have some sort of cell signal in your area.

It plugs into an outlet and is only about the size of a cell phone. If the power goes out, or the temperature gets too warm, it will send you a text to notify you of the problem.  You can also text it anytime you want to know the temperature, or to double check that it’s working.   With this and the camera, I feel pretty comfortable leaving the cats alone for the day.

So, now that we have the cats (and dog) covered, we can feel safe going out in the boat.     The dog stays at home with the cats when we go boating and so far, so good.

We managed to get out twice last week and both times the water was clear, blue and beautiful.  From where we store the boat, we have a short three mile run down the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs, out to Anclote Key.  It’s a beautiful barrier island right off the coast.   The past two times we’ve been there the water was as clear and beautiful as I’ve ever seen it.

We anchored right off the beach where we could wade over to the island.

There weren’t many people when we go there, but they started arriving later in the afternoon.

We had two manatees hanging around all day. That’s pretty unusual for that area and I worried about them with all the boats around.

The picture isn’t real clear, but the dark spots are manatee. They were right in front of our boat by our anchor.

 

 

We saw a school of Snook hanging around all day and another boater saw a huge Tarpon (fish). 

We saw this crazy boat.   It is one boat, but looks like a combination of two different boats. 

 

 

This boat apparently went to Anclote Key and never made it back.  The black thing in is a mercury motor.  The island is growing constantly and the last time we were there the boat numbers were no longer showing. It will be covered up completely probably by the next time we go out.  It’s interesting to watch how islands form and change over time.

 

 

Isn’t that beautiful?

 

We took a long walk along the beach, and picked up a few shells.  There have always been a lot of shells there.

We’ve been to Anclote Key hundreds and hundreds of times and it was rarely like this.

 

 

 

 

 

After out second walk, we headed back towards the boat and found we weren’t alone anymore.

We almost couldn’t see our boat from the others that decided they needed to park right next to us.

We are the little boat with the blue top in the middle.   There was plenty of beach area, but for some reason they felt the need to park right on top of us. 

This is what it looked like when we left. 

 

 

 

Shortly after we got back to the boat, we got another visitor.  It’s an island hopper from Tarpon Springs….AKA cattle boat.  YIKES!  Look at all those people!

 

This is going to be a rainy week in Florida, so it looks like no boating for a few days. 

Another Beautiful Day Snorkeling

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida

 

Before I tell you about yesterday, I should probably clarify yesterdays blog post.  Sherry felt bad about the poor shark we caught and released with a hook in his mouth.  We did too Sherry, but we like to think it may have taught him a good lesson and he will be more careful next time about what he bites!   :)  Not everyone would have released him.  Al  didn’t try to catch a shark, and was shocked when he did (despite the title of the blog).  We had hoped for some yellowtail snapper for dinner, and the shark was an accident.  He was fun to catch, but we certainly didn’t try to catch him.  The hook Al used was very small and are supposed to rust and dissolve quickly, so I’m sure he will live and grow up to be a big shark.  The hook will be more of an annoyance to him than anything else. 

 

The seas had calmed down enough for us to get back out to the reef, but just barely.  It wasn’t exactly a smooth ride out and and by the time we got there,I was a bit seasick.     I popped a few of my natural ginger pills and felt a little better,  but I wasn’t too enthusiastic about snorkeling at first.

We wanted to go back out to buoy #36 because it’s in 7-8 feet of water and we saw so many different types of fish there the last time.

As usual, the water started to turn blue and clear as we approached the reef.     I wish my pictures would capture what my eyes see. It’s gorgeous!

 

Fortunately for us, there wasn’t another boat on buoy 36, so we hooked right up.

The water was clear and gorgeous even though it was a bit choppy.   We saw several black spotted eagle rays near the boat, but unfortunately didn’t see any while we were in the water. 

As I waited for my stomach to settle, Al went snorkeling.

I sent the Intova video camera down with Al and you can see in the next photo that’s he is intent on filming some yellowtail.

I helped him out by throwing some fish food into the water.  He didn’t know I was going to do that, and was a little surprised.

The yellowtail seemed to appear out of nowhere.   I saw a much larger fish along with the yellowtail. It turned out to be a big jack.

Al got a picture of it.  You can see he’s a lot bigger than the other fish.

The splashing on the surface in the next picture is the feeding frenzy.

After the surprise visit from the jack, he popped his head up to tell me what kind of fish it was.

He forgot to turn the video off so he got a photo of me in the boat.

Mr. Barracuda was still there and acts as your tour guide the entire time you’re there.  He was also there the last time.

He just cruises along with you.  Sometimes beside you, sometimes just underneath.  He’s always there!  He watches you, and you watch him.  He’s beautiful.

 

I finally decided to jump in and see the action.  The water was 82 degrees, so it’s almost warm enough for me.  :)

Mr. Barracuda met me at the ladder and proceeded to split his time between me and Al.

This time, he wasn’t the only cuda on the reef.  At one point I saw 6 barracuda nearby and later on I found the big daddy of the family.

The other barracuda were only 3-4 feet long, but the big one must have been a 6 footer.  Not only was he long, but he has a massive girth.  He was a bit intimidating.

I was more cautious with the big one and was careful not to accidently float too close to him.

This is him,I think, but since I was further away, it’s hard to see how big he was.

This part of the reef is just teeming with life and you never know what you’ll see.  Al saw a big shark and we saw another big shark from the boat as we were leaving.

There were dozens of multi colored parrotfish.  I tried to get a picture of one “smiling” but they were busy feeding.

The next pictures are of a juvenile queen angelfish trying to get a much larger parrotfish away from her home.

My little camera does a decent job, but since I’m snorkeling, I’m too far away from the fish to get better shots. The color doesn’t come through like I actually see.  I really need to put a tank on and get up close and personal..  I can’t see a thing through the viewfinder, so I just aim the camera and hope for the best.  When I download the video, I pause and take a “snapshot”  when I get something I like.  Maybe next year I will have a better camera.

You never know what you’ll see next!

There is no shortage of opportunities to photograph the barracuda.

 

 

 

We had a wonderful day, but it will be our last time until  next year. 

Today, we start preparations for our journey north.  We had hoped to leave tomorrow, but we don’t think we can get everything ready by tomorrow.  We will probably leave Friday, just in time for 20-25 mph winds.