When Jake and I left Bosco boat in late February, we left her in the good hands of our friend Mike down in Oriental. This is where we initially lived and did Bosco’s refit before going off on the sailing adventures of a lifetime.

People have different school’s of thought about what to do in a hurricane, whether a boat-owner or just living in a home near the potential threat. Many will evacuate until conditions are better, while some will stick behind and try to do damage control, though they do so at their own risk. If anyone who lives on their boat decides to stay on it during a hurricane, they usually will have the sense to at least vacate the boat and stay in a solid building. There are no guarantees when the forces of Mother Nature are unleashed, and a boat is a lot easier to toss about than a solid 4-walled home.

Hurricane FLO, as she was referred, hit the NC coast on Thursday, September 13, 2018, late afternoon. Her strong winds and storm surge have already made impact hours earlier. By 11:00PM, FLO was pretty much right a top Oriental, along with 90 mph winds and a surge of 9.5 feet. Keep in mind that Oriental is already below sea level, so an extra 9 feet and 20 inches of rain to boot doesn’t sound too appealing.

By Friday’s early morning hours, the storm surge had receded by a few feet, rain continued to make things challenging. People had water flowing through their homes (the ones who stuck around) that forced many to the upper-levels, from which they would stay for the next 36-48 hours until the surge went out. Imagine, no power, no drinking water (other than what is stored), and being trapped in your own space, knowing that everything below you is drowning in water.

FLO changed from hurricane status to tropical storm status by late afternoon and brought with it tornado warning’s scattered about the area nearby. She took her sweet time to depart (only moving about 5mph) and her massive size kept her in-range for many more hours to come. When Oriental was finally hit by her back-swing, water levels receded as did the strong winds. The worst has passed, and is still to come.

By Sunday the bulk of the storm was gone. Power is still out and the water levels have receded a bit, which is a welcome sign. The road into Oriental was open again to the outer-world. But the damage left behind is extensive. Rescue efforts were put in place for those who stuck around; PODS (points of distribution) to allocate storm recovery supplies.

Status check…everyone still in-tact?

We had no idea if Bosco was among the wreckage of the storm. Most of our information came from friends who live in New Bern, which is only 25 miles away. And the footage we received was not very good.

The marina that we used to keep Bosco, NWC, in New Bern, was in complete shambles. Boats were laying a top one another, docks completely broken. Simply put, it is a disaster. I feel so sad for our friend’s living aboard their boats and to those who lost theirs to the storm.

On Monday, September 18, we got word from our friend Mike that Bosco was still upright and only sustained some minor cosmetic damage, that he could tell anyways. No one has been able to go check on her thoroughly, to see if any of her interior is still okay, as well as the equipment. A dock next door had a pier and a boat that completely vanished with no sign of their existence. That means they either sunk to the bottom of the Neuse River or are somewhere lost in the woods nearby.

Here are a few photos scattered about message boards and facebook of the damage and to New Bern:

NWC Marina

We used to live at NWC marina, and quite shocked by the images that were coming in. There has never been a lost boat here, which is why many people choose to park here. Florence ended that streak. Photos courtesy of Amy Roberts

Here’s a before/after photo of Bosco in the old slip. You can see where the navy boat is now laying sideways, where she would have been:

We don’t have any current images of Bosco boat, but we should get some more information later this week on her status. I think it means we have a trip to NC in store which will be a very different place to go back to, than the one we remember.