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Hurricane Irma, 3 months later

Well Hurricane Irma has come and gone and things are almost back to 100% at Bud n' Mary's thankfully.  It was a devestating storm that the Keys will remember for a long time to come.  We'd been very fortunate in Islamorada and the rest of the Florida Keys, being spared a major hurricane disaster since Hurricane Donna in the 1960s.  While we've had brushes with several storms, nothing has compared to this.  Not even Hurricane Andrew did nearly the amount of damage Irma did to us.  The Lower Keys, Big Pine Key and souther Marathon, definitely took the brunt of it.  Much of Islamorada and Key Largo did much better, especially properties that are on the bayside or near the road.  But everyone on the ocean got the full punch and suffered much more of the storm surge and brutal wind power directly.  We had a total of about 8 feet of extra water come up over Bud n' Mary's property.  All of the buildings had some flooding in them.  Luckily all of the boats did very well tied up in the mangroves, or taken on dry land.  We didn't lose any boats and only had some minor damage on some of our houseboats due to tree branches and moving them around.  The docks at the marina were probably the toughest thing to deal with.  We lost our entire large dock where most of our houseboats are tied too, and that took several months to get rebuilt.  One of the problems after a big hurricane is just getting materials and man power, as there is catastophic damage everywhere.  Power and water was lost on site too which took several days to get restored.  We had trash from about a mile up the beach from our property all wash down to ours, as our barn sticks out past the end of the mainland here and made a big collection point for everything.  We had 2 bobcats working for 10 hours a day for 3 straight days just moving debris out to be picked up.  They were really life savers!  We were very fortunate and able to reopen the marina with limited capacity on October 1, just 3 weeks after the storm hit.  We had limited rooms available, and even some charter captains back to fishing at that point.  Winds gusted up to 130 mph or so though were steady around 100 mph.  We were fortunate our giant storage barn made it through, only losing the bottom part of the metal around the outside of it and a small part of the roof ripped up.  We lost just about every AC unit on the property.  All the water lines and power around the docks was destroyed and had to be rebuilt.  We had a good amount of drywall to rip out and replace in several building.  The roof on our penthouse suite was ripped up and had to be patched and ultimately redone to fix it right.  Everywhere that water could find a way in, it did.  Luckily now 3 months later, we are back up and running with all of our hotels and charter boats.  All our offices and stores are operational again and we have live bait, frozen bait, and a selection of fishing tackle and clothing.  We are still not 100% done with the docks where our houseboats go, however that will hopefully be done before christmas week.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the storm.  Hurricane Irma will forever be remembered here in the Florida Keys.

 

Check out our new Outfitters Store

Next time you stop down at Bud n' Mary's make sure to check out our new outfitters store!  We just opened it in the last month and we carry great products from brands such as Pelagic, Yeti, Xtratuf, Columbia and more!  Clothing, hats, bathing suits, sunglasses, fishing boots, coolers, coozies, gray taxidermy fish mounts, artwork by Sam Gibbons... all kinds of stuff!  We have several customized Bud n' Mary's items as well from these brands.  It is the largest selection of Pelagic clothing in the Keys.  The store can be found on property and is part of Key Dives dive center building (right on the highway).  

It is open from 9 AM to 5 PM currently and will be open later in the summer time.  You can reach the them by calling Bud n' Mary's (305-664-2461) and asked to be transferred to the outfitters store.  You can also email sara@budnmarys.com for online ordering or other questions.

Capt. Jim Willcox newspaper feature.

Capt. Jim recieved kudos from Tony Capecchi in the Star Tribune.  He earned his vote as top guide in the world.  Read more about it here:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/blogs/294135321.html

Congratulations Team Relentless on winning 2014 Islamorada Sailfish Tournament

Capt. Paul Ross and mate Jim Hendrix of Team Relentless have done it again.  They competed and won in the 2014 Islamorada Sailfish Tournament!  This is leg one of three of the Gold Cup Series of sailfish tournaments here in the Florida Keys.  The competition was intense and really boiled down to the final 3rd day of fishing.  Team Relentless pulled away in the end winning with 16 fish for the 3 day tournament.  Capt. Paul has a long history of winning big time tournaments here in the keys.  Second place was Team Nancy Lee, captained by long-time fellow Bud n' Mary's Capt. Dave Morris, with 15 fish.  In 3rd place was Team Olympic Gold, who had a three way tie with other boats, all with 12 fish.  It's always great to see how well Bud n' Mary's captains represent in the local Islamorada sailfish tournaments, and not to mention many other tournaments around the world - Great job guys!  You can book all of our tournament-winning captains through our office, the winter time is the BEST time of year to catch that sailfish of a lifetime!  Call us today at 305-664-2461.