Sandra’s Miscellany

Dorothea is as secure as we can make her — cross-tied diagonally in two slips, so she has plenty of room to move during the high winds. But the sad truth is that no pleasure craft will survive 100+ mph winds, especially when surrounded by boats that haven’t been properly tied. I couldn’t believe the number of boats in the marina that didn’t have doubled lines yesterday.

We were under mandatory evacuation as of 6 P.M. yesterday. We had packed up both vehicles and bailed by 3:30, but the traffic was bumper-to-bumper heading north, west, and east. It took us 4 hours to drive 40 miles.

Right now we’re hunkered down at our friends’ house southwest of Houston. We’re set up with supplies for the expected 5-7 days without power and water, so we should do okay. We had planned to head out at 2 A.M. this morning for Austin, but all roads out of Houston are parking lots. It seemed better to be stranded in a new, well-built house with supplies than stranded on I-10 west in a car with the constant worry about running out of gas. Even if we could get out of town, the gas stations are running out of fuel pretty fast.

So we’re kind of stuck, but at least we’re prepared for it.

The hardest part was leaving Dorothea tied up by herself like that. I looked at the last photos I took of her yesterday and started crying. She’s been home for over four years, and it’s hard to see her go this way.

But hey, she’s a Bertram, and she might do better than we expect. I’ve seen a photo of a 46′ Bertram that was picked up by a hurricane and thrown through a restaurant, then dropped back in the water six weeks later. Dorothea is a stout old girl. Maybe she’ll surprise us.

Here she is in calmer days:

If you’re in the Gulf Coast area, take care. Stay safe, everybody.