Evacuation from Mobile

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride out a Cat 4/5 hurricane on a 80m long vessel. That is what our merry little band of Caretakers had plan to do if "Dennis" had of take a more easterly route. But when the officials from the two counties Baldwin and Mobile were going to order a mandatory evacuation and the US Cost Guard recommend that we do the same. I figured that we should head to Texas to Mercy Ship's International Operations Center (IOC). I decided to leave Noon on Friday fun. We had to totally shutdown the M/V Caribbean Mercy, disconnect stom shore power, disconnect water & Sewage, all cables and shore connections. Putout additional lines, lower the anchor, secure the decks, lower the gangway and then disembark from the vessel- jumping about 5 feet from the pilot ladder to the dock. doing all this with a crew of 1 engr, 2 deck hands and 1 ordinary seaman. However the real fun will be reboarding, reconnecting, and restarting all of the systems on board.
After we left the ship a 7 PM on Friday night we were caught up with major traffic so I called my personal OnStar person, Cindi- my wife and she redirected us onto an alternate path. Where the road not so busy, just long. Our normally 9-10 hour trip was a mere 12 hours to drive. We arrived at the IOC at 8 AM after having Breakfast. Only to find out that the Cat 5 was now a 1. But, mandatory evacuations are still taking place and all roads into the area where converted to outbound so we missed the heavy traffic out.
We are now at the IOC and will contact the Chief of Police on Monday to determine when we will be returning to the Ship. As it looks we are planning to return Tuesday and start the process of reconnecting everything.
Keep us in your prayers.