Sometimes storms are stronger than predicted. This time we were caught and found ourselves in peril.

After spending the past two months cruising from Jacksonville to Key West and back we were planning on leaving the boat on a mooring at NAS Jacksonville and flying to the west coast to visit family there. We arrived on Friday and scrambled to get everything done to prepare "Brilliant" to be left for a couple of weeks. On Tuesdays our plans changed dramatically.

We were on a mooring ball in 8-10' of water at Mulberry Cove, Jacksonville, FL and were hit by a severe storm during a frontal passage. Forecast winds were for only 30 knots, but during our little ordeal we saw sustained winds of over 55 knots for at least 30 minutes. There was sufficient fetch on the river to quickly build fair sized waves with a very short period that put enough pressure on the mooring (even though I'd been motoring into the wind to ease the pressure) for "Brilliant" to pull the 10' mooring mud auger loose. It took time to cut my mooring lines to get away from the still attached mooring ball, dragging chain and auger. The wind was too much for our old Thornycroft 50 hp engine, I could not get her to come around to clear the lee shore. By the time I realized it was a lost cause the winds had pushed us too close to shore and my last ditch effort to drop the anchor out was too little too late. With the brown water breaking over the portside we were quickly laid over and pushed into about 3.5' of water. On the bright side we did stop 25' from the stone riprap along the shore; the bottom was sand; and most important neither of us was injured.

The damage. The rudder was chewed up not by a rock but by the steel auger mooring dragged in by another boat that beat us to shore. Our rudder seems to have landed on the auger as we were being pounded. I believe the quadrant was broken when the tow company heeled the boat over with a spare halyard while a more powerful tow boat pulled us out of the sandy mud. It was quite a ride with the 2" of water over the port rail, but it did get us clear.

It was a bad day for the marina. They had eleven boats damaged. One sank at their dock the other nine including ours were put on shore. Unfortunately, one boat did reach the riprap on the shoreline, was pounded by the waves and sank.

Pete
s/y "Brilliant
Moody 425
On the hard Sadler Point Marina, Jacksonville, FL