Hurricane Sergio – Slow Dancers Voyage

October 11 was spent preparing Slow Dancer for the Hurricane/Tropical Storm that was headed our way. It was a guessing game as to how much power it would deliver and where it would hit. But we knew that we would definitely get something. We had escaped the wrath of Hurricane Rosa as it hit north of us and we got mostly rain and a bit of wind. This was less than 2 weeks ago.

We removed our head sail, part of our dodger and tied down our solar panels, dinghy and anything else that would move. We made sure that our water tank was full and we had plenty of food.

Rain began at 3 in the morning on October 12. It got harder and harder and the wind began. By 6 we had a full on storm. By 10, we were leaning sideways against the dock and watching the boat in the other half of our slip get dangerously close to us, even though we had fenders between us and he had dock lines tied to the other side. The wind came from one direction for a couple of hours then switched to another, then another.

The storm was a direct hit to San Carlos. We watched winds gusting up to 65 mph and 5 inches of rain throughout the day. We tied and retied lines. Some of the docks in the marina were swallowed up by the sea with 12 foot waves and 6 boats ended up on the shore. Several of the docks suffered damage as cleats popped out and weathered wood edges split and broke. These docks are made of concrete with wooden edges. The concrete buckled and cracked. Power went out and was out for 24 hours.

By 3 in the afternoon (12 hours after it started), Sergio said adios to San Carlos. Whew….we escaped unscathed and very grateful.