We Bought a Liveaboard Boat - How'd we get here? (Post 4 of 6)


We accepted an offer on the house on Aug 22, 2017, and were scheduled to close on Sep 18, 2017.  Three days, just 3 days later, Hurricane Harvey hits the Texas gulf coast as a Category 4 hurricane. The eye of the storm crosses right by Port Aransas, located on Mustang Island, where our future liveaboard boat was located. We hadn't finalized the purchase of the boat, but we did give the couple earnest money down and were planning on finalizing the purchase after we closed on the house sale.



See Port Aransas Tx, located south of Rockport Tx where Hurricane Harvey's eye passed.




When Harvey made landfall in Rockport Tx, maximum sustained winds was 130 MPH, and Port Aransas had storm surges of 9-13 feet (https://texasstormchasers.com/2017/08/25/category-4-harvey-makes-landfall-port-aransas-port-oconnor/). It made landfall on a Friday night when the owner's had just been on the boat the weekend before and left on Monday before the storm was even past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The boat was not secured for a hurricane. The couple was now at their other boat in Fort Lauderdale, FL enjoying it until we closed on the house in September. The storm developed so quickly, in two days. With a mandatory evacuation of Port Aransas, there was no one  left behind to be able to prep the boat better. The canvas was still up and more lines should have been added. So needless to say, it was a real nail biter of a few days until we heard about the condition of the boat, marina, and island area.


For 4 to 5 days, Hurricane Harvey sat on the coast of Texas, pounding away with it's hurricane force winds and flooding. He proceeded to dump 52 inches of rain to the Houston and Beaumont areas, leaving the whole region just devastated. Over half of Houston alone was flooded for days on end. We felt bad being concerned about our boat, when so many people had just lost everything. But when you think about it, we were wondering if we just lost our "new home". We were locked in to a contract, with the sell of our home, with possibly no where to go. We, too, would be homeless, along with the people who lost their homes to flooding.


During this time, Hurricane Irma was forming off the east coast near the Caribbean islands. The Viking owners had to evacuate Florida, up to Hilton Head, SC, and they couldn't come back to Texas with Hurricane Harvey still hitting the Texas & Louisiana coast. The owners did get word that the Viking was damaged, but didn't sink. The hardtop fly bridge was ripped off, along with all the canvas.




According to these pictures, we thought she fared extremely well. Boats were sunk around her and some of the floating concrete dock fingers were torn from the main dock . But until we heard back from the owners actually making it back down to Port Aransas, everything is still up in the air. Port Aransas was completely destroyed! No electricity, no food, no water, power lines down everywhere, all businesses were destroyed. It would take years of rebuilding to get back to normal. The logistics of it all would be impossible, even if the boat survived with minor damage. So now the waiting begins, and we still haven't closed on our house at this time. Our emotions and anxiety were through the roof......

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