Bob Bauman and I had scheduled our annual Keys dive trip for the last week of September as usual. Unfortunately Hurricane Irma had something to say about it. Irma, a Cat 3 upon landing in the Keys left widespread destruction including my property. My waterfront was destroyed, including the dock and major damage to the boat lift. The house, built on pilings and protected with hurricane shutters, survived with minimal damage. My boat had been stored in dry dock at a Marina on the bayside and suffered minor damage also, but was not usable. I also knew I had a lot of work to due to clean up and stabilize my oceanfront property.
Waterfront - September 25 2017
The dock had been destroyed, the ground and landscaping washed away and the pool was filled with sand, muck, weeds and dock sections and patio blocks. Lots of work to do. At least the power was on. Anthony and his crew had started clean-up before Bob and I got there - a big help. Islamorada Pool had finished cleaning and refilling the pool and got the equipment working. That was a huge benefit as we needed frequently cooling off working in the hot humid air. Most of our time was spent on finishing yard clean-up and draining and cleaning out the ground floor entryway, storage room and patio. They had been covered in 18 inches of storm surge.
The street was piled with debris. Bob and I and neighbor Chris took an evening off to celebrate my 65th birthday. Not the way I had planned, but we made the best of it.
Bob and I decided we needed a break from the 12 hour work days and wanted to find out how the reef looked after the storm. Since my boat was not available, we checked out the commercial dive operators. Most had yet to re-open. We found that Horizon Divers, out of Garden Cove was taking out divers. We took 2 trips, the first to Elbow Reef - a wreck dive, where visibility was a poor 30-40 feet. Another day we we to Dry Rocks and the water was really stirred up with visibility only 20 feet. You could see the reef damage - like a sand blasting.
Check out the video from our Elbow Reef dive by clicking on the video below.
By the end of the week, we had completed sufficient clean up to secure the property until my return in late October.