Tropical Storm Eta, which formed in the western Caribbean in November, 2020 and caused significant damage in Nicaragua and Honduras, passed directly over the Florida Keys during the nighttime hours on Sunday, November 8, only a rainy and breezy shadow of its former self.
Still, there were some impacts; minor flooding occurred in some areas, and power outages in others, and a few boats drug their anchors. Some kayaks and canoes were lost. All in all, it wasn’t so bad in the island chain. North on the mainland, however, was a different story. Stupefying amounts of rain fell in southeastern Florida, particularly in Broward County, which is where Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, and so on are situated. One region of the central western portion of the county received a mind-boggling 15 inches of rain on Sunday night as Eta coasted overhead. Miami-Dade County had its share of flooding, with nearly 10 inches of rainfall.
Eta was an annoyingly slow moving system, particularly after it crossed over the Keys and into the Gulf of Mexico, where it promptly stalled, keeping the lower Keys and Key West in rain bands and gale force gusts (winds up to 39mph) until about Wednesday. Here in Marathon, we experienced a few gusty squalls following Eta’s transit, and by Thursday were under clearing skies.
Lisa and I stayed aboard Jo Beth for the event, rarely seeing more than 30-35mph winds Sunday evening through Monday evening. We never received the crazy-heavy downpours so many others saw, and really never had any issues. The only things we were remotely concerned about were tidal surge and losing power…no air conditioning! Fortunately, we never lost power, internet, or cell service during the storm. The internet was down for about 12 hours following the passage of the storm, but power stayed on.
Tidal surge happens when ocean waters are pushed and shoved ashore by a storm’s winds. The surge can be aggravated by the timing of the tides as well, and in our case, any surge which was likely to occur was going to be around the time of the high tide.
A screenshot from our navigation wind instruments page; the number in the upper left corner is the wind speed in knots - 17.4 at this moment - in between Eta’s rain bands as the eye approached; here, the wind is coming from just west of north as indicated by the yellow arrow in the center of the screen
Winds in Marathon were predominantly from the northeast as Eta approached. Remembering that cyclonic storms – such as a hurricane – rotate or spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, we knew we could expect the winds to shift from the northeast, to the north, then northwest as the storm drew closer and moved over our location. As the storm’s circulation passed, we watched as the winds shifted to the west, then southwest and finally south. Once Eta’s center had moved fully west of Marathon, the winds would settle in and blow from the southeast.
This is all well and good, save the fact that the winds most likely to cause a tidal surge headache for us would be the winds from the west and southwest – and those winds would be very close to the timing of the high tide. We did see a rise of water above the normal high tide of roughly one to one and a half feet. That was it.
We had prepared Jo Beth well and felt ready for Eta. We firmly lashed and secured the sails and removed loose canvas covers which could be blown around. We added extra fendering to protect the hull from the dock and took a breast line from an amidships cleat across the empty slip to our north. The northerly winds would push Jo Beth into the concrete dock structure hard, and the breast line was there to ease the pressure of the hull against the pier. The aft spring lines, which keep Jo Beth from moving forward in the slip, were tightened. The water tanks were filled, the food lockers stuffed, and the laundry done. There really wasn’t much else we could have done.
We did help some friends ready their boats, and kept in touch with our neighbors in the marina as well as friends in Key West who would be riding out Eta on their boat. The rector from Lisa’s church in Marathon called, concerned that we were staying on the boat until Lisa reassured her we were thoroughly prepared. In the end, all was well for us.
The calm in the 85 mile wide eye of Eta, Monday morning
Now, Hurricane Iota is forecast to make a landfall in nearly the same exact location along the northern coats of Nicaragua. Unlike Eta, all indications are Iota will dissipate over the mountainous terrain of Nicaragua and Honduras. And there is yet another area of low pressure, which may form another tropical cyclone system, in that same region of the Caribbean. The long range forecast models are taking whatever this newest one will become, if it becomes anything at all, south and over Panama and into the Pacific. A sure reminder that Hurricane Season 2020 isn’t over yet.