Time for an Update after Hurricane Idalia

 I have been asked to provide an update after our recent experience with Hurricane Idalia. I will start this entry by telling you that we are safe, and SHIFT received no damage from the storm. I will write about the experience with the storm, later in this entry.

In my last entry, we had just arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, GA. It was June 27th, when we arrived. We quickly settled into a routine of social activities here in the marina and living on the boat in air conditioned comfort. The only problem was that it was HOT, Very hot and humid. 

Here is SHIFT in her slip at Brunswick Landing surrounded by two 65 foot boats.

We enjoyed the fireworks on July 4th right over the marina from the comfort of the club house 

Kim playing Bingo in the clubhouse. We had fun, but never won a game.

Nice sunset over the marina and the estuary beyond. 

We were getting tired of the heat and we had big plans to find some cooler weather. We prepared the boat for the coming hurricane season by removing the canvas and the head sails to reduce windage. We then talked to a couple of companies about replacing our very tired canvas. Kim has been dong a great job keeping it together, but we decided that now was the time to replace it. We left the marina on July 13th and made the 14 hour drive back to Missouri over two days. It wasn't much cooler in Missouri when we arrived, but the lower humidity was very noticeable. We then got the truck unloaded and then we turned our attention to our planned trip to Colorado for a family reunion, and celebrating my fathers 92nd birthday. 

On July 18th we drove to Ozark to pick up our grandson, Will. Then on down to Arkansas to pick up our son, Michael and his two sons, Connor and Cameron. We had 6 in the truck for the two day drive out to Colorado. We shared a VRBO with our daughter Shannon and the rest of her family while we attended the family reunion. We had an amazing time seeing everyone.

My Mom with two of her great grand children, Case and Colby

The whole family had a great time visiting around the pool at my parents complex.

I don't think it all could have worked out better. 

I think we had 33 people there. I love my family and we are so lucky to have Mom and Dad still with us. 

We left the Denver area on Sunday, July 23rd and headed to the mountains for a couple of days camping. I think the boys had fun hanging out and doing some fishing. 

We really did camp in tents. It was so cool and comfortable that I did not want to leave.

Three of my grandsons.

We love the mountains.

This was my view while having my morning coffee.

The guys even went swimming in that lake. 

Connor caught a nice trout. Will is fishing in this shot. I gave them both their first of many fly fishing lessons.

We drove on from Colorado to the DFW area to see Kim's Mom and Dad. It was great to see them and I know the boys really enjoyed the time together. 

We then went back to Missouri to rest. We drove almost 3000 miles on that trip. 

We got a visit from our good RV friends Dick and Cathy. It is always so great to see them.

I got an invitation to go to a famous Hard Enduro motorcycle race with my partner Bob. It was a good time and I was glad Bob talked me into going. 

All of the top factories had big rigs at the event called The Tennessee Knock Out

One of the riders making his way around the very technical course. 

My partner Bob and I hiked all over that beautiful piece of property near Chattanooga, TN.

This is a shot of Rachel Gutish, who is one of the top female riders in the world. She was at our ranch just the week before to teach a riding school for women riders. 

The time was approaching that our new canvas was going to be ready and we wanted to be at the boat when it was going to be installed. At the same time we were watching a storm that was forecasted to form in the Gulf of Mexico. Our grandson, Connor had his first football game on Monday, August 28th. The storm was forecasted to come right over Brunswick on the 30th. So, in our normal style, we drove to Arkansas to watch Connor play. He played very well. Then we left our sons house at 5 am and headed to Georgia. We arrived at 8 pm and got to work making sure the boat was ready. We slept on the boat that night in light wind and woke up to news the storm was making landfall and heading our way. 

SHIFT stripped of windage and ready for battle. We doubled all lines and hoped for the best.

Nice and calm at 7 am.

This large boat on our starboard side was a blessing and a curse. The wind came from that side and it blocked much of it. The bad news is that it was tied too loose for the conditions and those two fenders were pressed up against us, which was then pushing us hard into the dock. Our fenders stayed in place and we did not get any rub damage. 

The rain and the wind picked up and it was time to get to shelter in the club house.

We were lucky that the storm took a more westerly track than what was originally forecasted, which had the eye of the storm coming right over Brunswick, Georgia. Normally being on the eastern side of the eye is a bad thing, but Idalia was strange, because the bad side was the northwest side. We recorded a 44 knot gust here on the boat (I left the instruments on), but another boat that was more exposed recorded an 70 knot gust. 

We left the boat during the storm and went to a club house here on the marina property. We could not have been more comfortable. We watched the storm from the comfort of a recliner. I did go out in about 40 mph winds to check on the boat and that is when I saw the big boat pushing on us, but there was nothing I could do. We did lose power for much of the day, but that was a minor inconvenience. Power came back on at 7 pm. Brunswick Landing Marina lived up to it's reputation as a great hurricane hole, but there was some damage to the docks and two large boats when the wind shifted and came right down the river. Another marina not far from us sustained significant damage and lost a number of boats. We were glad the worst  was over when the winds dropped down to around 25 knots by 8 pm. We went back to the boat and slept well. 

We woke up the following morning to a cool and comfortable day. The canvas company came about 11:00 and started the installation of our new Bimini and Dodger. 

Yep, we are changing the color to dark blue. We included some window covers for the fresh isenglass. 
They had to take the connector back to make an alteration. 

The color turned out a little lighter than Kim wanted, but I like it. Now we just have to change the rest to match. 

Well, that is about enough for this entry. We are heading back to Missouri until around mid October. (unless another hurricane comes to Georgia) We have soccer, football and band to watch and I can't wait. I love this time of the year, and love to watch our grandchildren perform. Have a great fall!