Questions and Answers - Q. - Did you encounter hurricanes?

In the question and answer blogs we'll attempt to answer some of the questions we're often asked in the hopes they may offer some guidance to others who are considering cruising.

A. - While in the Caribbean we made every effort to keep south of the hurricane zone during hurricane season (June to November), though even while in Trinidad there was always speculation that a hurricane might veer south and hit the island.
In an effort to catch a flight out of St. Martin we found ourselves in the midst of Tropical Storm Olga in mid December, 2007 which proves that Mother Nature's calendar can be different than ours. (see blog entry: "Olga was Ugly" - Jan 8, 2008).
In the Caribbean the closest 2 hurricanes we encountered were in the summer of 2007 - "Felix" and "Dean".  "Felix" passed 120 miles north of us and "Dean" was just slightly higher.  (see blog entries: "Tracking Dean - Our first hurricane experience" - August 28, 2007 and "Flirting with Felix" - September 27, 2007).
We experienced high winds and spectacular lightning from strong thunderstorms but survived unscathed.
We encountered 2 hurricanes while making our way north along the U.S. eastern seaboard - "Irene" in 2011 (see blog entry: Nov. 20, 2011 - "Red Sky in Morning - Hurricane Irene") and "Sandy" (unofficially known as "Superstorm Sandy") in 2012 (see blog entry: "Stow, Stow, Stow your Boat" - Sept. 15, 2013).