I started writing this post in November 2018, approximately two months after Irma struck the FL Keys. I dropped it for a number of reasons — we were still busy working on the boat, but also, it was depressing to think about all the damage to the area and its impact on residents. Now, over a year later, things have improved. Damages are 95% repaired and Irma is becoming a distant memory. I am publishing the post as originally written, but with updates.

Irma was a category 4 hurricane that caused major damage to the state of Florida, especially the keys. (Click here to see details.) We were vacationing in Taos New Mexico, on September 10, when it hit Marathon. See post Hurricane Irma, for more information.

Questeria was hauled out, and on the hard when the storm hit. We lost the solar panels and had some water damage and mold. We also lost two vehicles that were parked at the marina and were flooded. Our two dock boxes floated away and were later recovered, but some of the contents were missing. Overall, we feel very fortunate that we didn’t lose more.

We get back to Questeria on September 24. (See page Tennessee to Florida.) She is waiting for us in the slip, but we need to clean leaves and debris from the deck and cockpit before we can unload the RV.

Refrigerator

Questeria has an Isotherm marine refrigerator that runs on either 12-volts DC or 110-volts AC. There wasn’t much in it when we left in June, but we left it shut and running. When Questeria was unplugged from shore power, the refrigerator switched to 12-volts. Bruce shut off all the breakers when he left it at the boat yard. It sat there, unpowered, until after Irma. When George brought it back to the marina, we asked him to turn it on.

We check the refrigerator. It has some water, beer and a few non-perishables in it. They are cold, but there is some mold starting to grow, from when it was off. We thoroughly clean it out and wash it with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.

Watermaker

We have a 12-volt Spectra watermaker. It is set to flush the membrane every five days. This works fine as long as the batteries are charged, the water pump is on, working, and there is water in the tank. The pump was turned off in the boat yard.

We turn on the water pump. The water in the lines is stagnant and the tank is almost empty. We put some water in the tank and flush the lines. Once all the lines are flushed, we flush the watermaker. We see brown water coming out. That can’t be good. We flush it a few more times. We aren’t sure about the water quality in the basin, so we will wait a while before trying it.

We take Questeria out in May, 2018, and anchor in Newfound Harbor — see Sailing, Anchoring and Apparent Wind. One of the reasons for this cruise is to check things out. We try out the watermaker, and it works just fine. When we left the boat for the summer last time, we pickled the watermaker so we didn’t worry about losing power or running out of water.

Solar Panels

In 2003 we installed three 135 watt solar panels. They were mounted on an aluminum frame, which was bolted to the top of the dinghy davits. The entire frame came off and landed in the boat yard.

Parts of the aluminum frame are attached to the dinghy davits. One piece is okay, but the other is severely bent. The rest of the frame and the panels are still at the boatyard.

We go to dinner at Lazy Days, which is next to the boat yard where Questeria sat for the storm. We see Jules, and ask if we can look for the solar panels. We find them right where Questeria was. It looks like two of the three are undamaged.

Bruce retrieves them the next day. I remove the broken panel and cleanup the rest. I open up the junction boxes on the other two panels, clean out the mud, and clean the contacts. I check them with a meter and they are still generating electricity.

Our plan is to temporarily mount the two panels and wire them to the controller to keep our batteries charged. Eventually we will buy another panel and mount them permanently. I go to Home Depot and buy some aluminum to replace the bent and broken pieces. I also buy some C-clamps to hold the frame in place.

We put the frame on the dinghy davits and try to line up the bolt holes at the front. It is clear that the stainless-steel dinghy davits are bent. I jury rig it for now, with more C-clamps and a piece of aluminum. I wire them to the controller. The batteries will now keep charged.

Like many things, the temporary fix is still in place — fifteen months later, the two panels are keeping the batteries charged. Originally, we looked at replacing the broken panel with the same kind, but they are no longer available. Also, solar panel technology has come a long way, and there are better solutions available now. We are reluctant to buy one more panel, because when wiring multiple wattage solar panels together, you are limiting them all to the lowest wattage panel. So, we are considering buying all new solar panels. We put this decision on the back-burner for now since we have something that works.

Dock Boxes

We have two dock boxes in front of our slip. We use these as storage for things like acetone, cleaning supplies, painting stuff and spare parts. The most valuable item we left in the dock box was our Honda 2000 generator. When the hurricane was approaching, we called George and asked him to screw down our dock boxes and move our generator to Robert’s shed. One of the dock boxes appeared to be locked, so it didn’t get screwed down. It didn’t really matter because most of the dock boxes that were screwed down came loose in the 1½ feet of water over the top of the docks. George located our dock boxes and put them back where they were.

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One of our dock boxes is filled with stagnant, smelly water. The other dock box is dry, because the holes left from screwing it down allowed water to drain off, but it is full of sand and gravel. Some of the stuff is missing and some is ruined. We salvage what we can, and clean out the water, sand and gravel. The jerry cans are okay, but most of the rest is trash. We are missing two unopened cans of paint, at $85 a piece.

Flooded Vehicles

We left two vehicles parked in front of the marina, a 2004 Chrysler Town & Country and a 1997 Honda Accord. They both were flooded by storm surge. After two weeks, they are still wet inside. We left items in both vehicles. There is a cooler in the minivan that is okay, but the rest, like a suitcase full of clothes, is ruined.

Both vehicles were insured for liability only. Next time if we drop collision, we’ll keep comprehensive.

We look online for someone who will tow flooded cars. We find a couple of places, but they don’t want to deal with older, flooded cars. Someone leaves a card that says “Tow Away Flooded Cars for Free”. We call him.

He shows up, we sign the titles over to him, and he tows them away. One less thing to worry about. I did forget to deactivate the Sun Passes, so we get charged for tolls on the turnpike.

Water Damage and Mold

Questeria leaked from the day we got her. We have been fighting deck leaks for 12 years. We stop a leak, but then things bend and flex, and start leaking again. We usually leave the air conditioner running and Damp-Rid on board, to help with the humidity. But with the stress of being hauled out, and the massive rains, some wood has started to rot and mold has started to grow. The areas of concern are on the starboard side — the head, galley and laundry room.

Our friend Joe, got back to Marathon before us. He was staying on his boat and thought he was having a heart attack. It turned out he had black mold growing in his lungs — We take mold seriously.

We start in the head. Everything comes out of the cabinet. We throw away the plywood panel and insulation and clean the shelf and walls with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. We paint the plywood wall between the galley and head with Kilz. We put in new insulation and replace the plywood with FRP board.

We see that most of the water in the head came from the galley. Now we take everything out of the galley cabinets and clean with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. The water is leaking in through the stanchions.  We must stop the leaks before we put the cabinets back.

We find a procedure for fixing leaking stanchions on the Irwin website. I order some balsam dowels online and follow the procedure. The wood screws are stripped on one of them, so I drill out the hole and fill it with West System Six10 thickened epoxy. (I discover that Six10 doesn’t store forever. It has hardened in the tube, and I have to buy more.) When the epoxy sets, I drill and tap the holes and use machine screws in place of wood screws. When done, I bed the stanchions with butyl tape. I also remove and rebed the sail track.

The front head was converted to a laundry room before we owned Questeria. It has a washer/dryer combo. We also use it for storage. The door is usually closed and it doesn’t leak, so we have not done a lot with it. With all the dampness, it’s time to clean it out.

First, we remove everything from the cabinet and take out the wall and insulation. We take out the washer/dryer and remove the original, ugly, wall paper. We wash everything with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. We paint the walls with Kilz and the interior paint and caulk the joints. We put everything back. It looks great and smells better.

Bimini Cover

Our bimini cover is damaged. It was in bad shape before Irma, but Irma finished the job. A few years earlier we had a new dodger made that zipped to the bimini. We call the guy that did the dodger, to see about getting a whole new enclosure, minus the dodger. We can’t get him, or anyone else to return our calls. In the meantime, we pin some canvas to cover the larger holes.

Months later, the bimini still is torn, and offers no protection from rain. We are thinking of replacing it with a hard top, but we are still researching how to do this. We decide to take down the torn bimini and patch it until we replace it with something better.

Fifteen Months Later

We spent a lot of time in the RV from November of 2017 to January of 2019. Most of our time on the boat was spent fixing things. We spent a lot of time fixing leaking stanchions, using the balsa dowel method, mentioned earlier in this post. Some of them had to be done more than once to get the leaks stopped. We’ve made some progress with leaks, but we haven’t stopped them all. Our bimini is patched and we are using an old sail cover in place of our damaged Mack Pack. We also replaced leaking port lights and hatches. Sometimes it feels like we take one step forward and two steps back, but in reality, we have made a lot of progress.

It is now 2019, and we are planning to take the RV to Phoenix, AZ, in April, for our son’s wedding. And after than we are planning an Alaska RV trip. This time we will haul the boat while we are away and work on it in the boatyard when we return, in the Fall.

Most of the Keys has recovered from Irma. (However, Winn Dixie has a sign that says “Opening Soon”.) Some of our friends, who had more damage than us, are still working on their boats, others have given up boating. Life continues…