Monthly Archives: September 2020

September 26, 2020 · 9:42 am

Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This…

I know it seems that I’m always posting about Guabancex, the Taino* Indian goddess of wind and hurricanes constantly making life difficult for we who chose to live our lives at anchor as I do here off of Anna Maria Island, FL. But it’s not always like that. Much of the time I wake up to days like this…

(*Taino: The Taíno were an indigenous people of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late fifteenth century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Taíno were the first New World peoples to be encountered by Christopher Columbus during his 1492 voyage. And there’s no need for rants about what a horrible person Columbus was, and the genocide of the indigenous tribes, yada, yada, yada, ad nauseum!)

1Lee Allen Young10 SharesLikeCommentShare

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Filed under Anna Maria Island, boats, Bradenton Beach, FL, Coquina Beach, cruising, Living on the hook, Uncategorized

Tagged as bad weather, Living on the hook

September 21, 2020 · 10:54 am

Keeping A Weather Eye

Off the top of my head I can only think of two others of my FB friends who live on a boat full time like I do and they’re on the same boat together. On a Caribbean Island, no less. So I post things like this so landlocked people get an idea of what it’s like to live at the end of an anchor. And I have to stress that if I felt I was in any danger I wouldn’t be in this location, I’d be tucked away far up in the mangroves somewhere. I’m securely anchored in about 5 feet of water at high tide and I sit on the bottom at low. Right now that exposed oyster flat is no more than 25 feet astern. If things really got bad I can literally wade ashore.

For people who live on the land weather isn’t as personal is it is to people on boats. For them it’s “Oh, yeah, it’s a bit breezy today,” as they go from their stable home to their air-conditioned automobile. Weather is only noted in passing for the most part.

For us out here on the hook it’s much more intimate. Here’s what we’re looking at here at the Coquina North Boat Ramp on Anna Maria Island, FL…

And while “Gale Watch” may sound quite sinister, I’ve been through thunder squalls right here much more severe. A couple of weeks ago one blew through with 60 mph winds and toppled huge lifeguard towers only a couple of hundred yards away and I did just fine..

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Filed under Anna Maria Island, Bad Weather Boating, Bradenton Beach, FL, Coquina Beach

Tagged as Living on the hook, watching the weather

September 15, 2020 · 11:16 am

Riders On The Storm

Sept. 13, 2020

Riding out the fringes of Tropical Storm Sally.

First became aware of the winds around 3:00 am. Don’t know how strong they were, but the noise of the canvas rain tarp flapping around woke me. Trying to get back to sleep with the waves from the winds coming in from the SSE across Sarasota Bay was a bit difficult.

Heard the rain start up about 5:30. At 8:30 my handheld anemometer read a steady 20.5 mph gusting to 26.7. Looking at radar images the poorly defined eye of the storm is roughly level with me here on Anna Maria Island, FL, but far out in the Gulf of Mexico. The sooths from the sayers are predicting as much as 4 inches of rain in this area over the next couple of days. Flash Flood Warnings are up and there was a news story that one local bridge had been damaged from currents undermining the banks it spans. I’m safe, thanks, with stuff to read and food and water on board.

The solar panels are struggling, but as long as there’s light they produce SOME energy. Yesterday evening at sunset four boats were anchored here near the Coquina North Boat Ramp: A small runabout to the south, an engineless Carver 26 just to the north and a small, mastless sailboat even with the Carver bt farther our in the bay. Right now there are THREE. The heavy winds and seas broke the sailboat loose and I see it a couple of hundred yards to the north in amongst the piers.