HURRICANE IAN 2022
7 videos • 2,650 views • by The Adventure Crews Four months into owning our dream boat, we had a hurricane heading our way. And we had no clue what to do. A boat is mobile, so just move it, right? But Hurricane Ian was acting like a toddler in a toy store: it couldn’t make up its mind. None of the models could pinpoint where it would make landfall, so we were equally indecisive. Sail to Miami? The panhandle? The storm could go either way, and we were running out of time. In the face of uncertainty, we decided to stay put. Our new home—and our livelihood—were on the line, and we were rolling the dice. We prepped the boat like never before: we took down the sails, moved the dinghy to a friend’s garage, taped the hatches down with painter’s tape and used all our lines and fenders. Finally, we moved the boat from our home marina in Palmetto to one in Bradenton. With a better sea wall, plus a floating dock instead of a fixed dock, this other marina felt like the safest place to be. We did all we could, and then we waited. On Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, Hurricane Ian pummeled the coast near Fort Myers, about an hour and a half south of us. We stayed in our townhome across town, nervously waiting for the storm to pass so we could see how much damage our boat sustained. When we got back to the marina, we found that except for a loosened bolt and a minor leak, our boat was practically unscathed. Others further south were not so lucky.