Rita No.5

21:32 CST, Galveston, Texas

Welcome CNN viewers!

My storm came early.

Not only having had no choice but to part ways with my employer today, while en-route home from the former salt mine, my car decides to have a nervous breakdown, shedding green-tinged tears of coolant on the side of I-45 south, only a dozen miles from the boat.

And so, I'm home now.  I have a night and a day's worth of sorting, packing, stowing and throwing-away to do.  Losing over four hours in waiting for a wrecker and a ride home was a severe blow to my timetable.  But I'll still make it out on time.  Sleep, though irreplaceable, is much less precious than the saving of what critical goods I can strip from the boat.

I may have to start a new life from scratch, but I do intend to lay that scratch with the largest knife I can.  So if I'm albe to bail-out with a car full of the most important papers, tools, goods, cats and clothes, I'll still be miles ahead of those pulled drenched and destitute from the hell of New Orleans.

Though not yet completely certain of abandoning ship, I'm preparing as if I were so doing.  As it stands now, AccuWeather.com is beginning to edge the anticipated landfall ever so gradually to the West.

We are estimating landfall between Galveston and Corpus Christi sometime between 6PM on Friday and 6AM Saturday. Ocean water analysis shows some cooler water in place about 300 miles off the Texas coast then warmer water again right near the Texas coast in our primary projected landfall area. So, intensity forecast at landfall will be a real challenge.

So long as the track keeps moving Westward, my hopes rise ever so slightly with every mile gained in distance from Galveston.  And if Rita sashays by at a reasonable distance, I dare even dream of not losing my floating home of these past six years.

I must add a bit here of praise for both Galveston and Harris county officials.  Such a contrast to the obtuse confusion to our East, these folks have been comporting themselves as professionals since it first became apparent that Rita might pay a visit. 

Yesterday, they even announced that all the municipal and school buses would be pressed into service for evacuating the ill, poor, infirm and all others without means of independent transport.

Mandatory evacuation.

Which means that I'm packing as if to move ashore permanently.  For that may very well be the case.  I will have all of my important papers.  Clothes.  The lockers will be berift of foods, and the fridge will stand empty and warm.  I'll have the hard goods aboard the car.  It may well be the most well-armed car on in the northbound lanes.

And of course, I'll have two cats who really don't care for the car there with me.  They don't ride in carriers either.  They'll ride quietly on my lap and by my side, but put 'em in carriers, and let the howls begin.  I'll have their food, and their litter box set just so.  They'll not suffer a bad ride, beyond the mere fact that they're in the strange, noisy room that moves.

So, by this time tomorrow, the New Dawn will be but a nearly empty shell.  Yet still, she will hold in her spaces my heart, my yearning and my very dreams.

I know that I'll fare well through the storm.  But I ask you, please.

Pray for the sloop New Dawn.

Comments

[Rick T]

Jim you and your Lady will be in our thoughts and prayers here in Orange County, CA.

Rick Tengdin

[Jay G]

Jim,

Be safe, and know that we're praying for you.

[olga]

be safe, will be praying for you and all folks in the area of Rita's possible landfall...

[Indigo]

I'll be praying for a near miss for you like I got last week. You never know what those things will do and I'm thinking positive. But don't push your luck.

[Kevin Baker]

Good luck, Jim. And the New Dawn, too.

[Heywood]

Jim: Best of luck to you (and New Dawn) on weathering Rita.

[MK]

Jim and cats...safe journey. All your new friends in FW wish you Godspeed and the lovely sloop New Dawn safe harbor. You and the entire coast are in our prayers.

[Army of Dad]

Good luck Jim.

[Poshboy]

Jim, you are well-prepared to survive any situation life--or Rita--may throw at you in the next couple of weeks. Important papers, clothes, food, arms, and your two cats will help make your next chapter of life much more comfortable as you use your intelligence to figure out what is next. -PB, Arlington, Va.

[Mordwyn]

Jim,
Any chance to get the New Dawn to sheltered water deeper up the bay?

With a heavy eneough anchor and eneough scope out she might survive.

Thats how we protected my folks boat through 2 'cains when they came visiting Long Island but of course they were at their worst cat 1-2 not 4-5

Good luck and god bless. we'll be praying for both you and her...