Dorian 7 weeks later

Wow, it has been 7 weeks already. And as I am writing those words I hope that finally our boat is on its way back to Florida for repairs.
It is carried on a barge back to Florida.

Lets go back to the days after the storm.
We arrived in Minnesota (and already had - sigh, big sigh - snow). We didn't even had winter cloths (and still don't).
For the first week or so we where in a "fog". Our brains really not functioning or thinking straight. If you ask my wife, I am still in that state and she is probably right to a degree. We both have a type of PTSD going through the storm, have to leave our home, our life, our boat behind with a hope to see her back.

After a week here, which we spend walking, we rented a car, and had a few visits with friends.
In the meantime, we worked with the insurance to get an assessor to visit the boat and work on finding a company to move the boat to the US.

Let me tell you, this is one of the most challenging mental roller coaster ride we had to go through. (and still to a degree in)
We wanted our baby, our,home,our boat back, and the key is in the insurance hands. Is it structurally solid enough, is it taking water while we are away, is more damage is happening to her while we are in the US... etc... etc...

We had some friends visiting her, and one sent us back a photo that showed the starboard bow low in water, and another photo from two weeks later showed her leveled.... Being far from her did not helped.

We got word that the insurance assessor came from Nassau and saw the boat, we talked with him, and set of first good news came - it looks like that the boat is fixable - wow, we where very happy.

A few days later I called my insurance agent - time to renew my boat insurance and he called me back a day later with a message e that the insurance decided to do a CTL - constructive total loss.
We were devastated. Another call to the agent, I asked him to check again, as I knew that the assessor did not submit a report yet to the adjusters. And....
A week later the agents sends us an insurance renewal papers....
And in the meantime, the assessor got quotes from a salvage company to move the boat to Florida, using the same person we worked with to find a yard to fix the boat.

Another two weeks goes by of doing paperwork for the salvage company, providing information to them, signing documents and ...... waiting

Finally, nine days ago the barge left Florida. Had many stops in the way bring staff to the islands, and taking on boats. It arrived to Treasure Cay on Sunday and yesterday, Wednesday October 16, our boat was finally lifted and put on the barge - great news right?
And than we got a call from the assessor telling us that the great people of Treasure Cay that we helped so much during the storm have decided that he have too many things on our boat so they ransack it. Stall the electronics and other things that we still will need to identify (i.e. we still do not know what was stolen aside from the VHF, Chart plotter, and a control panel).

my daughter made one of my island favorite cake

That feeling of been violated, someone that you may have helped going into your home and steal your belonging,,,

As I said - what a ride.
So now we will wait for the boat to come to Florida, have it assessed again by our agents, get an estimate from a yard to fix it and hope that the insurance will approve....

Before I close today's blog, we just want to say - big, no huge thank-you, to all our friends, for looking after us, talking with us, helping us dealing with the emotions and the stress (and some of those friends had the experience of going through a hurricane and living through the devastation it brings). - Thank you, you have no idea how much it helps to keep us (somewhat) sane.

 And one last thought.
In our original plans, we plan to visit Minnesota and the family only in late November for Thanksgiving. G-D had a different plan for us. G-D made sure that we will be with our friend and family to celebrate together the Jewish holidays and the new Jewish year together.


Stay tune