The Hurricane shuffle... getting out of Dodge!

Today marks the onset of another Hurricane season. Bummer!

Last year we had a Category 3 storm (Omar) hit us and as a result found ourselves aground after another boat dragged over our anchor. Luckily for us this happened in St Martin as the French rescue service were able to pull us off the next morning for free. We were not in a bad way and had our own float bags so could have self rescued by floating ourselves and kedging off but it was nice not to have to spend a day in the process. In fact as I recall the rescue guys pulled twenty-seven boats off the morning after Omar. I cannot tell you how much we admire and respect these guys who volunteer and do such an important and great job.

Not so lucky were the boaters in St Croix who were charged whatever they had and more by piratical marine tradesmen who in some cases did such a balls up that the "rescues" did more damage than the storm... Sadly the USVI has something of an unblemished record of sticking it to boat folk after storms. Something to keep in mind when choosing a place to wait out "H" season...

So we are getting the boat ready to get the flock out of here as they say... Northern climes and New England Chowder, (and those funny Lobsters that have claws) bookstores (that actually have books in them) and the Newport Folk Festival sing their siren song...