Wake up WEST Florida! As we found from Charley, hurricanes can change course suddenly and the smallest shift can change your life. Tampa dodged a HUGE bullet with Charley. Unpopulated Charlotte County took it for us.

Don't trust predicted tracks!!

Can WEST Florida or the Gulf Coast feel secure since this will hit EAST of us? No way!! Please look at the 1998 Hurricane Georges to see its nearly identical Carribean track. It NEVER turned north as predicted but passed under Florida, over the Keys and then turned north right up the west coast. Georges barely missed Tampa and went north to wreck the Gulf Coast.

But don't forget, Tampa Bay Cat Sailors will be racing the Union Regatta on Sunday at Dunedin, FL. Big air!!

Comming from Bermuda as I do I've been through a few myself. Bruce makes some very good recommendations, I would add one.

If you open a window on the leeward side of the house you will create negative pressure inside the house and you will be less likley to loose your roof.

Addendum,

..I want to mention, the wind driven water,........will be salt water.


...yep, does a number on your electronics, appliances, house wiring/outlets/breaker box/light switches, car, upholstery,...you name it.


Bruce
St. Croix

The 1935 Labor Day hurricane in the Florida Keys, with a pressure of 892 millibars, was the most intense hurricane to strike the United States.

I hope Frances does not try to beat that record.

Since Hurricane Charley I've been buying my ice cream one pint at a time here in Orlando. No doubt Frances will put the electricity out for a week or more again. Charley blew through all the most charming older Orlando neighborhoods: those that gave the city an "old Florida" look and feel. "The City Beautiful" is less so, now. What oaks weren't blown down during Charley were removed by the panicked populace, mostly fraidy cat non-natives, during the last couple of weeks. All that debris is on the curbs waiting to be blown back into the houses by Frances (the trees' revenge).

I've bought more batteries in the last month than I've purchased during the last thirty years. The worst, though, is that I'm having to hold-off on mailing my registration for the R.T.I. race. If I have shingles on the roof and all windows and doors intact after Frances, I'll mail it in. Not that the post office may deliver it on time in the aftermath. I've had better Labor Day weekends. Even so, I've had time to formulate a strategy for the race: I plan to start at the back of the pack and to finish. That's my entire strategy; to finish. When the last guy leaves on Sunday, leave a beer on the beach for me. I will finish eventually. My boat has three hulls and two speeds: Wide Open and Asleep. The Sleep Mode seems to prevail at the R.T.I.

My boat is in the garage. My older Jaguar will weather the blast in the driveway. One has to set priorities.

Looks like it is going to come right at me (Ft. Pierce). I am two blocks from the Atlantic and I don’t even want to think about how high the storm surge is going to be. Good-bye house, good-bye Supercat, good-bye pretty much everything I can’t carry out with me. Prayers would be greatly appreciated. Don’t know when I will be back on line….

Regards,
Bob

NOAA is feeling more confident in the current path prediction as the computer models are closely agreeing regarding landfall now. Good luck folks.

The lodestone in the mouth of Tampa Bay keeps hurricanes from coming in off the Gulf. Unfortunately it doesn't do anything about hurricanes coming in off the land.

So... what time is the racing going to be held on Sunday? What sort of turnout do you expect? I might just show up as an available crew.

Can you tell more about lodestone near tampa bay? I assume that it's magnetic rock, how much and where? Thanks,

Is there another storm building behind Frances? I have a freind going on a cruise soon and he really wanted me to ask.

Yes, IVAN. See the NHC site for the current track.

Bob

Mikemac- the whole lodestone thing was/is presumably a joke. If anyone here gets the St. Pete. Times and has that artical that came out in the last week or two about the Seminols migrating to Tampa Bay during hurricane season- I would appreciate a copy/scan/clipping/whatever. Apparently the indians believed there was some metal under the waters of the bay that kept away hurricanes.

This is extremely humorous, because a co-worker of mine has always joked about some lodestone dropped in the mouth of the bay to ward off hurricanes. He'd just made his story up to be funny.

The bulk of the nastiness was spent on Florida's east coast but Tampa still got a dose of wind and LOTS of rain. This attached weather page is interesting as it shows the eye pass over us. You can see the offshore winds pushing the tides LOWER than expected, then reverses to much higher than expected as the eye passes and the wind reverses. In the barometric pressure you can see it fall at midnight as the eye passes and the same can be seen for the wind speed and direction. Kinda neat, if your a weather nerd (you know who you are!) Also note that the water temp drops from 86 to a frigid 78. Brrr!!! It should clear by Monday pm so sailing should be great soon!