Our two days of prep paid off with zero issues.  The highest winds in Vero hit 60 MPH, with almost 70 MPH nearby.  At our marina, the highest gust was likely closer to 50 MPH.  We missed some of the heaviest rainfall as well, so it was easy & safe to walk around to check on lines, etc. At 2:45 AM the wind & rain completely stopped, as the eye went right over us. Our neighbor looked up & saw stars – I forgot to look up!

The eye of Nicole begins to go right over us around 3AM. The wind & rain completely stopped for nearly 1/2 hour – very eerie!

This wind graph shows a peak wind of 60 MPH, followed by less than 2 MPH as the eye went overhead.

The morning after.  Overnight the high water had begun to reach the top of docks, leaving behind some debris.

In the morning, everyone was checking on each other.

By this afternoon, the winds should lie down & hopefully the water will recede as well. Waiting for the marina to re-open & turn our power back on!

Tomorrow we’ll un-prep & get back to normal – oil changes & lots of boat projects!

Nearly a week ago, we were paying close attention to an almost-nothing, possible sub-tropical disturbance, possibly heading towards Florida.  We shortened our time in St. Augustine to only one night & decided to keep on moving to our reserved, protected slip in Vero Beach.

Along the way in Titusville is this new “highrise” bridge being built cross the ICW which will replace an old opening bascule bridge. Florida will build this 2 1/2 mile long bridge in only 3 years while leaving short ends of the old bridge for fishing.

We stumbled right into an U. S. Immigration & Customs training drill on the way to St. Augustine with multiple boats zigzagging at over 40 knots attempting to “stop” the pretend “bad guys” in the white boat. The 2nd photo shows them (pretend) shooting to get them to stop and/or disable the engines.

A spectacular full moon over our Vero Beach marina. Calm before the storm.

Our 1st storm-prep was a walk to the nearby Publix grocery store which has a public scale by the entryway. Yikes, 201 pounds – what happened? I haven’t even started on their delicious key lime pies.

A possible hurricane is coming. When the U. S. Coast Guard tells us to drink whiskey, that’s an ORDER! (Actually … the letter “W” (Whiskey) is the first of 4 levels of port conditions issued when a storm is arriving.

2 days of storm prep. Doubled & tripled lines, extra fenders & we folded up our flybridge top.

Ahhh… I suppose you’re not supposed to be holding onto your groceries & wine for the most accurate reading.

We’re ready for tropical storm or Cat 1 hurricane Nicole. Our biggest problem so far is that our marina preemptively turned off the dock power & went home for 2 days!?!?! No A/C (without running our generator) is going to make us a bit uncomfortable with this ’80’s muggy, rainy weather…