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From: Peter Conrad Cumminsky (no email)
Date: Thu Sep 09 2004 - 15:23:29 EDT
Surviving Frances - by Capt. Pete
Copyright © 2004, Peter Conrad Cumminsky <>
You may re-distribute this document freely as long as you receive no
monetary renumeration from it. If you wish to use this document
commercially you may apply for a license to <>
Tuesday afternoon - August 31, 2004
After checking my e-mail from the NHC (National Hurricane Center) I
started preparation for Hurricane Frances. There was a Hurricane
Warning in effect and an evacuation was recommended. I hadn't put
"Dutch Nirvana", my Tanzer 7.5 "pocket cruiser" sailboat, back together
completely since Hurricane Charlie passed through so I was still on two
over-sized anchors, a Claw and a Danforth, with 120 ft of rode - 20 ft
of chain on each.
I anchor here in the Indian River at the mouth of an artificial cove
formed by a causeway to the north and a "condo marina" to the south.
The cove is backed by the Cocoa Village riverfront with a depth of 6 ft
where I am anchored. I draw 4 ft. I was preparing a third anchor set
with my Hi-Performance West Marine anchor, a Danforth type, and my
old-fashioned "river anchor" that I use as a kellet with 12 ft of chain
between them and 150 ft of nylon anchor line. I will lay that out when
I go ashore to the shelter on Thursday, I thought. Little did I
know...
I had already taken in my sails for Charlie and bungee-corded my lines
to the mast and boom along with tying everything on deck down. I
brought in the Davis anchor light and was contemplating the outboard
and transom-hung rudder but decided I could wait 'till tomorrow when I
had more energy after a strenuous day. I took off to shore paddling my
14 ft plywood Pirogue for a trip to the Library to check on my e-mail,
my sailing groups, and get the latest charts from the NHC.
After leaving the Library at 6:30 PM and returning to the riverfront
docks I found my Pirogue missing! All that I found was my life-vest
thrown up on shore. I spotted a couple of regulars over in Waterfront
Park and asked if they had seen anything. One of them said he had seen
some teenagers loading a wooden canoe on a red car about a hour ago.
He regretfully said he thought at the time it looked like mine but
didn't believe someone would steal it in broad daylight so he didn't
approach them. My transportation was gone!
The boat ramp was deserted so I went back to the Library (the closest
free local telephone) and called a missionary I knew. He promised to
come by and take me to his home where I could get some food and stay
the night. That's how I spent Tuesday night.
Wednesday - September 1, 2004
In the morning we went to the church, where I had finished building the
Pirogue from a group project, to look for Scott - the man that ran the
project. He was not available and would be busy the next few days with
hurricane preparation. I was never able to get in touch with him and
left several messages on his church answering machine - his cellphone
wouldn't answer or take messages. I was effectively stranded.
I went back to the Library and got on the local "Free-Cycle" group on
Yahoo and asked if anyone had a dinghy or pram available. I also
checked the local condo marina docks for sailing buddies with a dinghy
available but no one was around even though boats had not been kicked
off the unprotected docks yet.
I was frustrated and exhausted with all the running around on foot. I
hadn't eaten since breakfast at the missionary's house and everybody
was boarding up for the hurricane so I didn't find anything close by.
Fortunately I always carry a supply of energy bars with me in my lumbar
pack along with a couple of pints of water. The regulars told me of a
church where I could spend the night so after one last trip to the
Library to fruitlessly check e-mail I went to the church. I also left
a message on a local computer board that I would be on the waterfront
in the morning if anybody could give me a ride back and forth to my
boat to finish preparation and pack a "ditch" bag for the shelter.
Thursday - September 2, 2004
I got to the waterfront early and it was a hive of activity - lot's of
powerboats were being put on trailers and driven to presumably save
havens. Everyone was too busy to bother with a rag-sailor but finally
a couple of young recreational fisherman coming in gave me a ride out
to my boat and promised to wait a few minutes for me and bring me back
to shore.
There was not enough time to do everything that i had planned to do. I
couldn't spare the time to rig a block and tackle to bring the outboard
aboard and stow the rudder - all I had time for was to hastily pack a
duffel for the shelter. Of course I found later that I had forgot
stuff I had remembered to pack for Charlie. More on that later...
After getting back ashore and thanking the fisherman I heard the
evacuation order was to be mandatory at noon - it was 10:30. I had no
transportation to the shelter so I went to the bus stop and waited over
a half-hour without a bus passing by - they had, stupidly in my
opinion, stopped the buses just as an evacuation was getting underway.
What about the people with no car - how do they get off the coast?
Fortunately, the regulars were just coming by on their bikes to go to
the food pantry and then to the shelter. They agreed to ride my duffel
(about 50 lbs of food, water, toiletries, foul-weather gear, ditch bag,
radio, flashlight, batteries, etc.) on the handlebars and meet me at
the food pantry for a last meal before going to the shelter - about a
mile and a half away. I got there and ate a hot meal and then we went
over to the police station to see if they would give me a ride to the
shelter which was 3 miles away.
The police volunteers said they were too busy and I would have to walk
so I asked the guys if they would continue on with my duffel to the
shelter and I would follow on foot. I finally got there after 1 pm and
we settled in to a building which looked like it could have been Fort
Knox - very thick walls with small slitted windows on the 2nd and 3rd
floors and strong shutters on the ground floor - surely hurricane
proof.
We ended up on the 3rd floor with several older people and were
promptly invaded by a bunch of young Polish tourists who took over the
room with air-mattresses and other camping gear - they were making a
holiday of it since they couldn't continue their regularly-scheduled
vacation. Unfortunately, even though I'm of polish ancestry, I don't
speak the language but some of them at least, spoke English.
We had a very good meal that evening and then I discovered that I had
left my flannel v-berth sleeping sack and neck pillow on the boat!
When it got colder that evening I slipped into my foul weather gear to
keep warm and used my life-jacket for a mattress. I slept little as
the youngsters stayed up late and slept late in the morning - I usually
get up with the sun.
Friday - September 3, 2004
Breakfast was served at the shelter and it was just OK. I'm glad I had
some food and snacks with me and started to share with the guys who
hadn't brought anything on their bikes but money. Having been an
Academic Technologist before retiring and this shelter being at a
College and our room being a classroom I was able to get the computer
up and running and check e-mail and the storm's progress. I had
jury-rigged the TV earlier so that we could see the storm coverage.
This room was the same one I had during Charlie and they still hadn't
secured the computer with proper passwords. I didn't try the AV
equipment as last time it WAS secured.
Lunch was a poor meal so the guys decided to see if anything was still
open. We went out and found a pizza place open though the convenience
store next door was closed. We had our last pizza there before heading
back to the shelter.
One annoyance was that the lights in our room were controlled by the AV
console and last time it was locked out. The Polish group had a bunch
of DVD's and Music Videos so I decided to try and see if I could get
the AV console up. It works off a touch screen which controls the
projector, screen and the interconnections of all the inputs -
computer, DVD player, Laptop, video camera, VCR, etc. Well guess what
- it worked! This time it was unsecured. I showed the kids how to
access the computer and the AV console and let them have at it. As a
bonus we could now control the lighting.
Saturday - September 4th
Same-O, same-O, except that the winds and rain were coming through in
bands with increasing intensity and the food was getting worse and
worse. The hurricane passed through during the night and we were sung
as a bug in a rug even though they reduced electrical usage and
switched to generator (the clock stopped just after 1PM). All local
radio was off the air as was the counties radio system except for the
amateur radios on our floor since they had inside antennas.
End of Part 1:
=====
- Peter Conrad Cumminsky | <>
- "The Gods do not subtract, from man's alloted time,
- the hours spent in sailing." - anonymous
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