Photo Friday - Damaged

I'll never forget September 16, 2006 and hurricane Ivan. I, and many sailors like me, left our boats in the water. We made all the storm preps. We secured or romoved all the loose stuff we had aboard, took down all the exposed canvas, and doubled up all lines. We felt pretty safe in our shelterd marina. None of us expected a 20-30 foot surge. The rising water uprooted the docks and sent boats crashing into one another. When finally located, many boats still had their mooring lines attached to the pilings that were pulled up out of the mud along with sections of the docks. It took me a week to find my boat. That's her in the middle of the photo. She was torn up pretty bad. It was a 23 foot Hunter and the last time I saw her (before I took this photo), she had a mast, a boom and a brand new 8 HP Honda four stroke. All of which are probably burried in the muck of Bayou Grande. Even if I had taken the boat out of the water it might not have saved her. The surge breached the sea wall and damaged or destroyed many of the boats that were pulled and lashed to the padeyes in the concrete of what used to be a seaplane ramp.

For the most part the marina and most of the boats in it were a total loss. There were a lot of very nice boats moored at the marina on September 16th. As you can see, boats were stacked on top of each other. It was one very big mess.