Hard Hearted Hanna

I drove over to the Ford Plantation just south of Savannah on Sunday, primarily to keep the lovely Laura Lee company as she feverishly prepares for the upcoming wedding of my daughter Suzanne to take place here September 27. Instead of a relaxing visit, the anxiety level has risen because of Tropical Storm Hanna currently located just south of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

While the storm has meandered around and lost strength over the last few days, it is forecast to begin movement to the northwest and strengthening to a hurricane again over the next 24 hours. While it’s exact course and schedule is dificult to predict, it is currently forecast to make landfall just north of here at around 8 am Saturday:

If the storm is up to hurricane strength and remains on this course, Steel Magnolia will have to be moved out of the marina here to ride it out in the Ogeechee River. We shouldn’t get too much damaging wind here but there is a possibility that we could get a pretty big tidal surge that might wreak havoc on the marina. The floating docks are secured to concrete pilings which are only about five feet above normal high tide. A six-foot surge could literally lift the docks off the top of the pilings leaving the boats and docks floating free.

What complicates things is that I can only get out of the shallow marina at high tide, which will be around 2 pm today, 3 pm  Thursday and 4 pm Friday. If you look at the map, Friday afternoon could be a little late as strong winds would already be buffeting the area. That means I will need to take the boat out tomorrow, Thursday, before we even know if this is a serious threat. However, better safe than sorry.

So instead of heading home today, I bought groceries and prepared to hunker down for a couple of nights out in the river. Unless the forecast changes dramatically, I’ll be out in the river from Thursday afternoon until at least Saturday, when the storm should be well past us.

I’ve done this before. The lovely Laura Lee and I spent about five days anchored 20 miles up the Mobile River during Hurricane Georges. This one will be a lot simpler, I trust, as I only have to go about 1/4 mile. However, I’ll miss the party atmosphere we had during Georges with 14 boats rafted up together. And I’ll miss the company of the lovely Laura Lee. She’ll have to leave here tomorrow to drive our two dogs back home. They would not find it amusing to be locked up on the boat for two days.

This may all be a non-event, and I hope it is. However, I’ll keep posting the latest here as long as the cell towers are working.

Update on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 10:41PM by John Samford

Ella Fitzgerald singing Hard Hearted Hannah