The tires gave us some extra insurance against punctures. Thankfully they weren’t needed. The topsides paint is already scuffed up anyway, from the launch two years ago. Hopefully I can get some paint and graphics on soon.

It has been seventeen years since The Golden Isles’ last brush with a major storm. Hurricane Floyd, in 1999, made a very similar track to this years Hurricane Matthew, veering to the northeast at the last moment, only to brush by offshore, keeping us on the “good side” of the circulation.

Earlier, this September, the minimal hurricane Hermine came through, tracking from the southwest, out of the Gulf of Mexico.

Hermine actually did as much or more damage to local marine interests, mainly because the predominant wind was from the south. The large marinas here, Morningstar , and the condo docks next door, along with Brunswick Landing , all suffered because they are more exposed to that direction. Matthew’s winds, however, were mainly from the northeast, which is the most protected direction in each marina’s case.

Brunswick Landing,marina, where we are, had the least damage in Hermine, and virtually none from Matthew. There is no question that it is the most protected, but we were still all very lucky. Matthew happened to hit us at low tide. Since we have a tide range of six-eight feet, if the storm had passed over at high tide, the Cat 3 storm surge would have probably caused the floating docks to jump the pilings, setting whole rafts of boats adrift to bludgeon each other and everything else.

So far it has been a very good year for salvors, repair workers and tree surgeons.