Tropical Storm Cindy

This photo was taken shortly after daylight on July 6, when Point Cadet Marina in Biloxi was still submerged by the storm surge from Tropical Storm Cindy.

It's been awhile since I've posted anything new here, mainly due to having to deal with more storm threats on the coast, which is amazing for this early in the year. Tropical Storm Cindy was making it's way across the Gulf the evening of the 4th of July, so the next morning I had to rush to Biloxi to secure Intensity. There wasn't enough warning time for the marina to try to enforce a mandantory evacuation, so when I got there 95% of the boats were still there and the owners were preparing them to ride it out at the docks by doubling up lines and putting out fenders and such. Landfall was forecast to be sometime before dawn, but the storm wasn't expect to do much, other than cause a 4-5 foot storm surge near the center of circulation. I planned to spend the night on board to keep an eye on my lines and to watch Halcyon, my friend Artie's 27' Pacific Seacraft. Artie was visiting family in Chicago and couldn't get a flight back in time to prepare for the storm.

Thankfully, I decided at about 10:00 p.m. to move my truck to the second floor of the parking garage. It was a good thing I did, as the storm did pass directly over Biloxi and we got the full brunt of the storm surge at Point Cadet. Hearing wind howling in the rigging of dozens of sailboats and someone's roller furling genoa being torn apart with vicious popping noises that sounded like gunshots, I stuck my head out of the hatch at 4:30 a.m. to find that we were experiencing a storm that was right on the verge of a Category 1 hurricane. Much to my surprise, I was looking down at the tops of the dock pilings, as the water was nearly 3 feet deep over the concrete docks of the marina. It was quite unsettling to see all the boats in the marina floating well above the docks, their lines disappearing at a downward angle to the submerged cleats they were secured to. Beyond the seawall surrounding the marina, angry waves were racing through the channel and a rise of one more foot of storm surge would have left the marina vulnerable to them, probably resulting in disaster for most of the boats. As it was, many of the vessels I could see from my vantage point in the driving rain were straining to come loose and some were heeled over almost to their beam ends by the 60-70 knot sustained winds we were experiencing. Looking over into the parking lot, I could see that the folks who left their cars there and on the ground level of the casino parking garage would regret it. The water was half way up the doors on most of the vehicles I could see.

Shortly after daylight, the eye passed over our location and the winds became calm, then resumed their fury from the opposite direction (west) as the storm moved on along it's path. Few boats were damaged other than torn biminis and sails on the ones the owners didn't secure.
I had no problems with Intensity and Halcyon was fine as well. Later when talking to Artie, however, I learned that he had left his car on the first floor of the parking garage when he caught a ride to the airport. It was unfortunately flooded, but like all real sailors, his boat was his priority and he had forgotten to mention the car to me the night before.

With all the meter boxes submerged, Point Cadet was now without power for an indefinate period of time. This was not a good situation with Category 4 Hurricane Dennis bearing down from the Caribbean with a projected path to the northern Gulf coast in just a few days. Not having power would make it hard for many boat owners to top of their batteries and prepare for the coming mandantory evacuation, not to mention the inconvenience the liveaboards would suffer in the sweltering July heat with the ability to run their air conditioners.

I was faced with several more days of hurricane preparations myself, and needed to make a decision about where to take Intensity.