We are now appreciating our previous visits to Maine during hurricane season. We knew we might be facing this eventuality being in Florida during August and September…more on that in a minute. Annette and I had been staying in this little AirBnB for the first two months. We both needed an upgrade so we rented a house near the boatyard. To celebrate our pending location we declared date night for a terrific evening out!

We spent the Sunday moving into our new place, more on that….Monday though got right work installing a power connections for the Single Side Band Radio (left fuses) and also the Outback Solar Charge Controller (right side black box)

Then there was Tuesday and Irma starting making threats to the east coast of Florida. As a precaution the boatyard workers started to make some preparations.

Wednesday then we make a quick trip down to Palm Beach to a friends condominiums to pull the hurricane curtains.  Keeping in mind this is our first hurricane experience.

A real rookie mistake was made….if we were more experienced we would have known to pull the table and planters inside..completely amateur.

So after moving all our stuff from the AirBnB and from our storage unit into the new house we had a wonderful two days there. Then Irma got serious and since the new house is on the water. My dear angel wife, known as the Admiral re-packed everything back together so we could stow it on the Magnolia-M. See the house is right on the canal shore and with talk of a 7 foot storm we thought best to have everything on the boat. Hence this is how the sewing room now looks!

The master suite…

The Galley….

All the while Annette was packing the house, I was getting educated on the industrial level storm shutters at the boat yard.

The question is always if you leave a hurricane threatened area you might head towards a more hurricane threatened area!! As the decision had been made to head north-west the phone rings and my friend Ty says come on up to the Villages! It was a was the perfect call at the perfect moment..so we were off! On the way we passed Mount Dora, one of the highest points in FL….its like 150ft!!

The drive should have taken us 3 hours but with most of South Florida heading towards North Florida so the trip took closer to 7 hours. Along the way we had plenty of entertainment!

Hurricane preparations continued in The Villages with a work party to get the outdoor furniture in.

Now, going back to that part about going into the storm rather than away…well we managed to pull that one off as well. In our efforts to avoid the storm we have in fact lured Irma well away from Magnolia-M as the storm track has shifted well west. It was funny to me that these guys had no furniture to move, no preparations to make except for another round of golf…kinda surreal….

Meanwhile back at Stuart Yacht Magnolia-M is starboard tied with and spider webbed to the other side of the fairway waiting for Irma to pass on by.

If all goes well we will be back aboard by mid week.

Weeks like these with the challenges, physically and mentally make us second guess our choice of this lifestyle. At least I do. Annette is such a trooper you would not believe. She puts her shoulder into it and gets it done. When I am at my worst she is at her best. Feeling lucky..be safe and will write when we are back aboard. We have gotta get this girl Magnolia done…too many adventures await!

9/11/17 – We obviously came through the storm fine. Now we are just waiting for power restoration so we can get back aboard and get to work.