Staying ahead of Florence

Brenda and Gary at top of St. Augustine Lighthouse

Quick update on our plans for staying ahead of Hurricane Florence. This is a powerful storm, currently a Category 4 hurricane, projected to make landfall along the NC/SC coastline this coming weekend.

Last Saturday, after several days of monitoring the long-term forecast track for the storm, we made the decision to sail S/V Pandion south from Jekyll Island, our summer home for our boat, to St. Augustine in Florida. While Jekyll Island remains well south of the projected landfall, it could get tropical storm force winds and rain as the storm moves past.

NOAA NHC wind projections for Florence.

NOAA NHC chart of all five disturbances in Atlantic and Gulf.
Very active season!

After our experience with Hurricane Irma last year (when we storm anchored S/V Pandion in the Ten Thousand Islands and the eye of Irma went right over the boat) we do not want to take any chances if we have the time to make a move.

We stopped in St. Augustine back in July, on our way to Jekyll, and had found the city to be a great place to explore. And there's the restaurants :)

So we are moored in St. Augustine, watching the forecasts, riding our bikes or walking through the city, and learning about the amazing history of the area.