What we did right/wrong/not at all or wouldn't have mattered anyway...

Okay.  What should we have done better? Mind you, no two hurricane prep scenarios are going to be the same.

Tim says: MOVE THE BOAT.

Oh, but what would be the fun in that. And sea state goes to shit long before the hurricane gets close, so unless I'm moving it in...say....June?  I'm not moving it 5 days before a hurricane hits. Hurricanes travel at least twice as fast as a sailboat.

PUT ON THE HARD.  Yeah, no, maybe?  Probably wouldn't be the best in the Keys. However, we had put our previous boat on the hard in Marathon. Checked in on that marina, because we had seriously considered doing it this time around, I discovered that wound up better off in our slip.  Marathon was on the ugly side of the storm and many boats in the boat yard were off their stands. Docks were not damaged, but destroyed.

There's one boat yard in Key West. You couldn't PAY ME to put our boat in it.  It's part live on your boat on the hard (full time), part working marina, part junk yard.  No way that crap is going be stowed away properly. Not only that, absolutely exposed.

COULD HAVE DONE BETTER.
Chafe guard. We did miraculously well, but since we wound up with loose lines, chafe wasn't an issue that much. In a post-Irma giddiness moment, Tim found the chafe guard he had left on the deck, still on the deck. WTF? 120 mph winds and that shit never left the deck.  Reminds me of tornadoes.


Take main sail down.  We got lucky. Even if our clew didn't fail, we risked  damage.

Make a diagram of all of the sea cocks to make sure we have them all closed.  We left the boat not sure that our galley sink was properly closed.

Boat documentation should have come with us.  Eventually we'll scan it all...soon.

DID WELL
On our flight down we drew a diagram using my iPad with the projected wind direction(s) our slip/piling/dock arrangement.  I think that really helped, really gave us a visual of what we were dealing with.

Divide and conquer.  We also planned out who was going to work on what. As a result, we had two people in motion always. When you have to run to your boat and then evacuate situation, it is a valuable thing to have that plan. It wasn't just a blue/pink situation, but what worked best for who's abilities. Tim also had to pick up supplies so dropping me off while he did that allowed me to get a lot done in that period of time.

Also, common sense things.  We are a very multi-leveled boat, but I got all area rugs, equipment, shoes and whatever else off of the floor.  Any of that can absorb water if there's ingress and absorbed water adds weight. Weight adds strain to lines.

Patience.  Mostly on my part.  I married somebody who LOVES to analyze. I'm a shit or get off the pot kinda gal.  I realized he needed to do what he needed to do, so I think I only yapped at him once.

Kindness. I don't think I gave Tim credit for sending me down below to get water and cool down. Because it wasn't just hot before the storm, it was 1000% humidity/barometer dropping/heat index of the sun/no wind hot.  I overheat, been hospitalized twice with heat stroke, my body has never been the same. So, to Tim, thanks my love.

DIDN'T MATTER ANYWAY
Category 4 storm. Eye wall 15 miles away. Enough said. Initial winds NE shifting to west. 120 mph gust clocked in Key West. (which promptly removed all meteorological equipment on the island)

Piling failure.  Many pilings at many marinas failed. I shouldn't get irritated, but when you suspect something and it happens? Also, our neighbor on the other side had bugged out (smart guy) so we didn't have that counter balance on our port pilings. I think if we had that, we would have kept off of the dock finger.  We knew they gave, so having a counter weight would have helped. Sooo, I'm blaming Capt. Robin. ;-)

What also alarmed us is that one of the marina staff said they and gone around and straightened pilings out. WHAT? WHATWHATWHAT? If they's gots bended over, they's nots working. Don't straighten them, mark them for replacement.  So we'll be checking our other pilings and if they still have a lot of give, we'll be talking to the marina. They'll probably want to charge us for our toe rail carving their piling up.

Mother Nature is unpredictable.  We planned for a storm surge we didn't get.  Good thing and bad. We should have had our base lines a bit shorter than we did. But, then again, piling failure-all bets off.

Did we get lucky. OH HELL YES WE GOT LUCKY.  We don't doubt that for a moment.

What do we do this point forward? We'll have to discuss. Key West is not that pleasant in the summer, so getting the boat up north and put to bed would probably be best, but best laid plans balanced against work/family/life--not always the easiest to pull off.

We'll see. Hat tip to Bob Bitchin: Our ordeal was an adventure--because we made it that way.