Cybersail Sailing Journals

09/27/04
Marsh Harbour
We have notified the Insurance Company. This was hard because there are not Phones, Power, and Water. The local phone company lost a complete 210ft tower in Cherokee. The Central Office in Marsh Harbour was in 3 ft of water. Phone service could be 4-5 weeks. Our Globalstar phone has been the only get ahold of people. Once Internet is up (I am using a friends to update the page) I'll respond to emails.

09/25/04
Marsh Harbour
Jeanne was a direct hit. The wind started at about 2:00am and at 6:00 3 day before a full moon high tide the Hurricane Jeanne Eye wall hit. The storm surge was about 8-9 ft. This caused all the the dock and marina's with the northern exposure to be destroyed. One of the boats in Mangoes broke lose causing all of the docks to begin floating. Some of them rested against Cybersail and with the wind and pounding waves was to much for the rear cleat to bear. Once the cleat failed the rear of the boat was not secure. The rear of the boat was upwind. All that was holding Cybersail was the front and midships cleats. During the storm surge Cybersail was driven onto a piling, spearing it from just above the waterline and through the top deck and Cybersail died and Ugly death.

09/23/04
Marsh Harbour
Jeanne if going to be a direct Hit. We are all set and ready for it. All we can do is hope for the best. We might be out of touch for a bit. While all power and Internet get running again.

09/19/04
Marsh Harbour
We are keeping an eye on Jeanne. She will pass to the east of Abaco, But over the next 5-7 days is expected to cirle back and possiably cause a problem again.
The last couple days it has been a bit humid here. Since all the storms and it is low season here there has not been many people around. Most places still have there storm shutters installed and there are a few places without power. Over all Bahamas Electric Company (BEC) has done a good job getting the power up and running. The local phone company BATELCO did a great job also. The cable company has not faired as well. Only 1/2 of the channels work and they turned off the weather channel 4 day before Jeanne was to hit. They turned it on 2 days ago. High speed internet access from BATELCO (ADSL) is still not working in most areas. There are 2 Wireless Internet Service Providers here in Abaco Outer Island Internet is the only one that is up at this time. Most of all coverage area is up and running.
The marina that we are at (Mangoes) is a ghost town only 3 boats. For that fact all of the marinas are sparcely populated.

09/10/04
Marsh Harbour
Almost back to normal. Power,Water,Cell and Internet working for the most part. I'll update more picture as time permits. Only 3 restuarnts are open.

09/09/04
Marsh Harbour
It looks like IVAN will miss us. We now have power (Goes On and Off a lot), This morning The Cell service came back up, And Water is on and off. So things are getting back to normal. We are just waiting for Internet access to come up to update the website. I got some limited email yesterday from the Sat phone. More to come later.

09/06/04
Marsh Harbour
We will stay on the boat tonight. There is Still no Internet,Power, Phones, or Water. We had Water for 2 hours this morning. But Nothing Now. Cybersail faired Frances fine. Only Damage was to the Bahamain Flag that we fly from the spreader and the wet coushins from leaky hatches. The Mechanic came today to look at the boat that sunk. Seeing that one engine was totally under water. The Mechanic filled the air intake with Oil along with the Oil inlet till it was full. Then Covered the Engine the rust Block. When the owner arrives her will remove all the oil and refill to normal level to restart. The Alt and Starter along with 3 Injecter will have to be replaced. The owner should arrive on 9/9 bring the parts and view the damage.

09/05/04
Marsh Harbour
We came back to the boat to run the AC to remove any left over dampness. We notice the the Cat boat in the slip across from us was sinking. There was nothing I could do because I didn't want to just jump on the boat to save it because it could be looked at as if I was working on it and that is a NO NO down here. Plus I didn't want it to become my fault that it sunk. Once Lisa from the marina called the owner on our Sat phone and the customer said okay SAVE THE SHIP. We did so with a Sump pump and a washer machine outlet hose and a lot of Duct tape. I had to dive into the boat to open a hatch to get the pump in the boat. Well after 7 hours the boat is above the water line and the boat was saved.

09/04/04
Marsh Harbour
This storm will never end. It now has been over 36 hours of wind well over 90 Mph with gust to 135 Mph. There will be NO leaves on the trees. We are betting there will not be any trees!. Everything at the Shelter is fine. The little honda generator is keeping us going (Fans and Refrigerator) I would like to say that getting off the boat was a smart Idea. There are 4ft waves in the Harbour and the fetch is about 750FT. When the winds calmed down some we (the guys) checked out the boat again. We could barly walk and the rain hurt as it hit. Cybersail was fine. The wind blow so hard that we all moved to the other end of the house that has 3 Cement walls. The room we were in the outside wall was moving in and out a 1/2 inch. It was to loud to sleep even with the TV up full volume we could not hear it from 10ft away. Take a look at the 15 sec video under the Photo Album

09/03/04
Marsh Harbour
Hurricane Frances started at about 3:15 AM with a stiff breeze with BIG Gusts. At 11:30 am we went out to look at the boat Ours was fine, But 2 boats at Port of call (2 Marina's away) Sank and one boat in the next Marina was de-masted. Important Note. Take down the sails don't tie them. one of the boats that sank had sails on and the de-masted one did also. Hummm, wonder why you should take the sails down.

09/02/04
Marsh Harbour
We finished up all the pre storm stuff and will be Going to PO's House at 5 Pm. He is a local Bartender that we met. PO his wife El, their son Blue, Bob (local that lives on his boat), Lynn and myself will ride out the storm at thier house. It is a very sturdy house and it is 2 minute walk from marina.

09/01/04
Marsh Harbour
Started all the Storm stuff today. Hope I do it right. We removed all sails, Dodger. and Bimini. Filled Water Tank, Doubled lined all lines over 700ft of lines. Long is good for large storm surge. We Stowed as if we were doing a crossing in Bad Weather. We gathered up a valuable bag (Computers, Jewerly, Papers, Documents, Electronics) to remove with us when we leave the boat. We made a spider web of sorts to protect the boat. We will pull the boat about 6ft off the dock when we leave and deploy 2 anchors (1 front and 1 back). We will hope for the best as I have never had to prepare for a Hurricane of this strength.