Newsletter September 2004

"Pipe Dream’s still afloat!"

We’ve taken a lick’in but we’re still tick’in. We’re Baaaaack. Jutta and I moved our return date up by 10 days to get back to Florida. We were anxious to get back to our lady and check for damage.
Poor Pipe Dream is a little bruised and bloody from Hurricane Frances but we are still afloat and we are getting the hell out of Florida. At the end of this cruising season (July) Jutta and I brought Pipe Dream up from the Yucatan, Mexico, and into the “protected waters” of Florida. It was time to return to the West Coast for our yearly visit with friends and family.
After a fabulous 4th of July spectacle in Miami, we traveled up the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) looking for a safe marina to park Pipe Dream, our home, for a few months. Several marinas were rejected due to lack of protection from currents and surge, or because the marina manager reminded me of my last boss at Merillat during my working days, “the dark side”. Jutta and I finally settled on Harbortown Marina in the lovely, serene community of Fort Pierce, Florida. The only other marina in the running was City Marina, also in Fort Pierce, a quarter mile down the waterway from Harbortown. We had studied all the weather patterns, researched hurricane history and decided to berth Pipe Dream on the east coast of Florida. What convinced us to stay at Harbortown Marina were the words of assurance from the marina manager I will remember as long as I live: “Fort Pierce has not been hit by a Hurricane in one hundred years.” Guess what, sports fans, Fort Pierce, along with Pipe Dream, took a direct hit from Hurricane Frances!! Pipe Dream took winds of 100 miles per hour for 24 hours and gusts of 120 miles per hour. The storm surge was three foot above the docks and the marina was under water. Pipe Dream was double and triple tied to the docks but she still had a little cosmetic damage to her teak rail around the port side from pounding against the piling in the heavy wind. (For those of you in Michigan reading this newsletter, the port side is the left side facing the pointy end, not cheap wine!) We consider ourselves very lucky. Everywhere in the marina there are boats under water. Behind us in the dry storage lot, there are twenty or more boats knocked off their braces and lying on their sides. The City Marina, which we considered as a spot to leave Pipe Dream, is completely gone, yes gone!!! There are wrecked boats stacked up on shore and nothing but a few pilings sticking out of the water.
Jutta and I flew back to Ft. Pierce on September 11 and have been frantically preparing Pipe Dream to “Get the Hell out of Dodge” and head north for inland protected waters. As I write this newsletter I’m watching the weather station on TV covering the progress of Hurricanes Ivan, Jeanne Karl, and Lisa churning across the Caribbean. It’s time to run and hide!
Our visit to the west coast was very nice. Jutta’s son, Brian, got married in Mission Bay this summer and it was a beautiful wedding. Lots of flowers, lots of people, and free food and drinks. My kind of party.
My summer was spent visiting friends and family in the Phoenix area. Luckily it was warm there (110 degrees) and I didn’t need to travel with lots of winter clothes. I did break away for several weeks on a beer drinking and trout fishing trip with old buddies in Montana and Nevada. I’m sure Anheuser Busch stock jumped several points during out trip. Then I rushed back to Phoenix to take my daughter to Las Vegas for a long weekend. You know, that father-daughter bonding stuff! You just don’t know the pressure I’m under!
Due to the lack of response to the “Help Ferdy Cruising Fund” during the last four years of cruising, I have found a new outlet to fund our trip. Since I quit work and sailed away, I have fantasized about being on the Federal Dole. The amount of money I have paid in taxes over the years is staggering. I found out FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is handing out money like a slot machine for hurricane damage. Since Pipe Dream is our primary residence, we qualify! I will fill keep you updated on our progress dealing with the federal government in the next newsletter.
Today’s date is September 21. Pipe Dream is put back together and ready to move on. We will do some last minute shopping and go to the library to send the newsletter. I have been busy making a cardboard sign to hold up on some street corner in town this afternoon to help with donations for our trip. I hope this works otherwise I will have to appeal one more time to your generosity. Well, keep those dollars coming anyway.

From the decks of Pipe Dream
Ferdy and Jutta