Chapter 5: Watching and waiting

Next few days we stayed glued to the television, watching the buzzsaw called Irma head closer to the Keys.

Went out to get some groceries and run errands-getting odd looks from the Kansas folks because I kept saying "Thank you, and be safe."  Oops-sorry that was what we were all doing in Florida last week.

Along the northern coast of Cuba we watched as she wobbled along, constantly making weather forecasters a complete wreck.

Finally, it was the moment of truth, the Keys were going to be hit by a Category 4, possibly Category 5 hurricane.

12 years of having a boat down there, can we ease into this with a Cat 1? Oh no. Let's go Full Monty on this shit.

Tim keeps yelling for the storm to go west of Key West, I keep yelling at Tim... NO, that puts us on the WORST SIDE OF THE STORM. The dirty side of the storm, the ass kicking side of the storm.

Then the Weather Channel has to pipe up: "With this unprecedented storm, there is no 'dirty' side of the storm."

Oh, bugger off.  And on a side note: I am really sick and tired of the word unprecedented.

Night before landfall, we have mission control going on in our living room.  TV is on CNN/Weather Channel.  Laptop on the tide gauge to monitor storm surge. iPads on various webcams and anemometers around Key West.

As night approached I watched the first of the mooring field boats drift by Mallory Square.  Soon it was dark and the wind was picking up.

Around 8pm a big gust came through and the first of our webcams went out. Then another. Then another.

A friend posts on Facebook-there goes the power.

Tim goes to get some shut eye, I join him in a bit, but I'm up again with our sick dog and my own worries.

When the eyewall hit the Keys I did tear up a bit, not so much for the boat (which I was convinced was probably toast), but for the islands themselves, every last quirky key there is.  Also, the eye was going over Big Pine Key--home of the Key Deer. What will happen to them?

I woke Tim up and around 7:30am we get an alarm from our boat monitor that the boat has moved-our geofence was set for 15 feet. Shit.

One last update from my friend. Then nothing.  The tidal gauge that was creeping up went offline, the weather station at Key West Airport went off line. All cell service to the Keys was down, but it would take a few hours before word got out to everybody that contact with Key West and the rest of the Keys was non-existent at the moment.

The red arrow points to the location of our boat. Less than 15 miles from the landfall of Irma.