Hurricane Ian

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Terrapin; our Westsail 32, is totaled.

Lament

The realization that Terrapin is totaled is slowly sinking in.  We’re doing our best to ride the emotional rollercoaster of losing our Westsail 32; which we believed would be the perfect sailboat to take us on many long and wonderful sailing adventures.  We poured a lot of resources into her; time, energy, and money, to get her ready for the retirement voyages we had dreamt of for years.   Can you believe she was oh so close to being “done” as far as the list of improvements we had planned for her? And then Ian! Bad timing!

Not all Projects, Let’s Go Sailing!

We’ve always held the practice to spend some time on boat projects, but always take time to go sailing.  If we stayed in the boatyard until all our projects were done, we’d never get out on the water.  While we did spend plenty of time at the boat yard working on boat projects, we also spent ample time sailing and exploring.  Now, more than ever, we are grateful we stuck to that motto and made sure to leave the dock! 

She Was A Dream to Sail

We’ve owned and sailed a number of boats and so far the Westsail was our favorite underway.  She felt stable and safe.  Even our most timid sailing guests felt secure onboard.  She was easy to balance the sails for all kinds of weather.  That made it easy to go out sailing in all kinds of weather!  Regardless if it was a light wind day or a small craft advisory, Terrapin was a dream to sail! 

Good Memories and Keep Dreaming

Remembering all the good times we spent on Terrapin helps to bring a smile to our faces during this transition time of being “boatless”.  We covered a lot of water on Terrapin on Florida’s southwest coast, the Florida Keys and up to Miami, and last winter to the Bahamas.  We enjoyed trips as a couple and with family.  We made lifelong friendships in the boatyard and on the water. 

To help keep our sailing dreams alive, we just pick any one of the many fond memories from our time sailing Terrapin:  snorkeling in the Keys, visiting the Dry Tortugas, sailing with friends in Charlotte Harbor, at anchor at Cayo Costa, walking on Fort Myer’s Beach, exploring the town of Naples, and the list goes on… Recalling our various adventures aboard Terrapin lightens the weight of our loss.  And those memories help fuel our desire to get back out on the water. It helps keep our dream alive!  

Tending to Terrapin After Ian

Annapolis

We were in Annapolis working at the boat shows when we learned that Terrapin was damaged by hurricane Ian.  After the sailboat show was over, we decided to take a chance and drive to Florida even though our boat was not upright yet.  Safe Cove was making good progress on righting the boats so we hoped ours would be soon.

Safe Cove Boat Storage

Once we arrived in FL, Safe Cove was escorting boat owners into the yard to see their vessels.  If your boat was on its’ side, you could only view it from the ground.  That was the case for us for a handful of days.  Since Terrapin was not righted yet, we visited friends’ boats who were out of town and took pictures for them.  They were so grateful to see the condition of their vessels!  It felt good to be able to help others while we waited for Terrapin to be righted. 

When we saw Terrapin, both from the ground and inside, it helped confirm that our insurance’s assessment of a total loss claim was correct.  The cost to do all the repairs definitely exceeded our insured value. 

From the ground, we can see that the bowsprit is knocked over and loose, there is a crack in the hull, the mast is broken, and our rigging is all a tangled mess.  And our stainless steel life rails are bent. And that is what we could see from the ground.

Once Terrapin was up on jack stands, we found further damage!  The crack in the hull was bigger than we expected and inside the cabin, we found the cabinetry was broken. 

Down below was a mess!  Much of the galley was thrown across the cabin and landed on the floor, navigation desk, and nav seat.  But up on the wall, our grandson’s artwork still hung!  It brought a big smile to our faces in the midst of the chaos.   

Storage Unit

Fortunately, we had thought ahead that we might need a storage unit and had rented one while we were still in Annapolis.  It was a smart move.  Storage units were selling out quickly as homeowners and boat owners were cleaning out their damaged homes and boats.  We headed to a handful of Walmarts to find and purchase plastic storage bins to pack up our personal belongings.  It’s a popular item and leaves the shelves almost as soon as they are stocked. 

Packing Up Terrapin

During our time in FL after Ian, Safe Cove was allowing boat owners, adjusters, and contractors into the yard from 9:00-3:00.  The boatyard staff escorted you to and from the boats via golf cart.  We wondered how we were going to transport all our personal belongings from Terrapin out of the boatyard.  Are we going to bring them by golf cartload?  Fortunately, not!  Once we had accumulated a pile on the ground next to Terrapin, we could bring our vehicle in to load our car up.  Here’s how our days of packing up went:

Safe Cove

• Arrive at the boat yard slightly before they open at 9:00 to get a golf cart ride into the boat yard to our boat. In case there was a line-up, we wanted to be one of the first ones in to maximize our time to pack up.    In general, everyone was friendly and kind about who goes in first, second, and third…, but one time a boat owner got snappy about being the first one for a golf cart ride into the yard.  “no problem” we said, “we’ll wait”.  We smiled and added, “have a great day!”.  We hope their day turned around and was happier.  I guess it was the last straw that morning that we didn’t notice they were waiting in their car as we were waiting outside of the gate.  No problem mon!

At Terrapin

• Setup our ladder, bring bins and bags onboard
• Sort and Pack
• Choose one area to sort through and decide what to pack up and what to leave
• Some areas were easy to pack up like drawers of plates, cups, utensils
• Some things were missing pieces from being thrown across the cabin.  Put them aside until the missing part is found.
• Some areas were hard like our books.  Some were dry and fine and others were not.
• Move to another area, and hold our breath as we open a locker to see how the contents fared.  Some lockers were dry and others had standing water.
• Make it a game to fit as much as possible in each plastic bin in hopes it will all fit in our storage closet.
• Remember to drink water and stay hydrated.
• Try not to worry that we’re working at a drastic angle, it feels like Terrapin could take a nose dive at any moment.  Although she was on stands, she has not been leveled yet.  We’re working on quite an unnatural angle to the side and nose down.  No wonder some new muscles were sore this week! 
• Lower the packed bins and bags down to the ground either by ladder or by rope. 
• Estimate when we have a carload ready.

Get Our Car, Load It Up

• Call the phone # to request a golf cart ride out of the yard.
• Wait for a golf cart ride, ride out, and request they open the gate for our car.
• Drive our car into the boat yard and directly to Terrapin.
• Load up items from the ground to our car.
• Drive out of the boat yard and to the storage unit.  We’re so grateful we were able to reserve a storage unit close to Safe Cove to minimize drive time!

At The Storage Unit

Repeat The Above Steps

How did we do that?  I feel exhausted just reading about it! 

We did that for 3 days.  The 4^th day was just for a few loose ends and to say goodbye to Terrapin. 

Airbnb Condo in Englewood

When we weren’t working at the boatyard, we took some walks on the beach or relaxed in our Airbnb condo.   During our drives, we noticed the community clean-up piles on the street seemed to grow bigger each day.  Lots of tree branches, mattresses, house siding, and furniture line the streets and remind us how many lives were impacted by this hurricane. 

Outside our window, we saw men hard at work to repair a neighboring condo’s roof.  Many roofs in the neighborhood had blue tarps covering them while waiting for repair. 

We are keeping our loss of Terrapin in perspective. We are just one of the many boaters, homeowners, and businesses who experienced a loss from Ian.  It is sobering to see the number of people and communities impacted. On a positive note, we’ve learned of many wonderful outreaches to help after a disaster like Ian. Gocajunnavy is just one example of a group that we’re particularly impressed with!

Paperwork

Once we had finished packing up Terrapin, we set off to complete our insurance paperwork.  The forms required a notary and two witnesses.  Our instructions said to go to a UPS store and they have a notary and usually enough staff to act as witnesses.  We went to a local UPS Store.  At the entrance was a sign “No notary today”.  We went to a different UPS store and learned “our notary is at lunch from 12-2”.  We asked if we came back at 2:00 if they will have two witnesses available.  “no, unfortunately, we are short-staffed” was their reply.    We went to two local banks.  Both were friendly, but neither would notarize unless we had an account with them (and they don’t provide witnesses). 

So, we drove north to a UPS Store farther from the hurricane action thinking they might be more well-staffed.  We were correct.  After a 45-minute drive north of Port Charlotte, we found a UPS store that was able to took care of our notary and witness needs.  We mailed the completed paperwork and realized we no longer owned Terrapin.  Gulp!

Now What?

We’re back in MN feeling a bit like lost puppies.  It is disorienting to not have a direction of what we’re going to do each day, next week, next month, this winter.  We are not alone in having our boat totaled by Ian. Some boat owners are responding to the situation with “we’re done!”.

While that might be tempting for us as well, when we think of possibilities for what we want to do this winter it sounds something like this: “we could buy a smaller boat” “we could charter a boat” “we could crew on a boat” “we could visit friends on their boat”. Hmm, do you see a theme here? Boats!  

Our Next Boat

We know we’ll be boat owners again regardless if it is sooner or later.  It’s fun to scour the internet and narrow down what our next “perfect” boat will be.  Today, it’s one boat, and tomorrow it might be another one.   We value having a bluewater boat so we can feel comfortable sailing in a variety of conditions. We can’t afford to replace Terrapin with another 32’ foot boat that’s as ready to cruise long and hard as she was, so we’re looking smaller.  We’ve looked at two boats in person so far and while it helped us gain a visual of the smaller size, it also drove home what we lost.  

Pardey’s well-known motto of “Go small, go simple, go now” resonates well with us.  Both now and in the past.    

8 people on a 33′ boat?!

When we were sailing with our 6 children on our Columbia 33′, we often were asked “do you all sleep on there?!”.  We were tempted to answer “no, the children take turns sleeping in the dinghy”, but didn’t know if the recipient would appreciate our joke.  “Yes, everyone has a spot to sleep at night”.  I share that story to illustrate that sailing on a small boat isn’t a new concept for us.

With this attitude in mind, we’re looking for a smaller bluewater boat. A double berth for Tony & me. Add a galley to cook in, a head, a good anchoring system, dinghy, and we’re ready to go!  A couple of extra berths for family or friends that visit us are also on our wish list.

Why isn’t it that simple?  Probably because Terrapin was more than a list of needs and wants.  And our next boat will also be more than a list of needs and wants. 

What boat, where, and when? 

Stay tuned for updates on our next sailing adventure.  I’m equally anxious to find out!  You may want to sign up to be notified when I post another article on Terrapintrails.

We know we’ll persevere! Wearing our “persevere” T-shirts and drinking coffee from our Terrapin mugs is a good reminder during our brainstorming about what to do for our next sailing adventures.  If you could use a T-shirt, mug, or other reminders to persevere and enjoy the journey, check out my shop.

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