Update After Tropical Storm Isaac

Unlike what the folks in the northern Gulf around Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing from hurricane Issac, tropical storm Isaac was pretty much a non-event for Beach House and her crew. This did bring our total named storms we have had to deal with to 17. By previous standards, this one was no worse than many afternoon thunderstorms we have encountered in south Florida and elsewhere. The difference being, it lasted for a few days rather than a few hours. But don't get me wrong, we are always extremely happy when conditions are less than anticipated, and nothing pleases us more than having to do all of the preparations and then not need them. As a matter of fact, we prefer that scenario to most any other. We did, however, have some wind and rain for a couple of days.

As the storm moved north of the Florida Keys, the winds picked up from the northeast in the 20 MPH range. It stayed that way pretty much most of the day, and for a while Sunday night, it actually became calm. We had rainfall on Sunday in the 2- to 4-inch range and found two water leaks we didn't know we had. That was to be expected. On Monday morning, the winds picked up and held all day Monday and Monday night. The direction had switched from the northeast to the southeast and was blowing 30 to 35 MPH straight up the canal into the marina. As protected as we are here, this is the longest fetch. We saw some wave action and even white caps at times as the gust picked up to about 40 MPH. Interestingly enough, there was very little rain.

Southerly winds will pile the water up in the marina. It runs out of places to go since we have a weir dam just beyond our slips. The predicted 3- to 5-foot storm surge turned out to be about 2 feet. The water stopped rising about a foot from the top of the seawall. The dock ramp was a bit uphill for a day. Fortunately, it never got any higher than that. So all in all, we count ourselves lucky and consider this good practice for the next storm. Hurricane season is far from over. Thanks to everyone that emailed us with their best wishes. It's always appreciated.