Growing up we spent a couple of hurricanes on the boat. However,...... They were only slight category one hurricanes.
The first one was unintentional. .... 1974 we were crossing Long Island sound from Mystic CT to Long Island (heading back home to NJ to end our vacation). The hurricane moved up the coast much faster than NOAA predicted when we found our selves in the middle of Long Island sound with things starting to get really sloppy. Long Island sound can get real nasty with very short steep seas. (Our family boat was a 1950, 46 ft twin diesel Chris Craft.).
My dad and brother took turns at the wheel and it got to the point where the boat wouldn’t steer with the rudders so they were using the throttles to steer. (My brother is two years older than me. He was 16, me 14.)
I can still picture the burgee on top of the bow rail (6-7 feet above the waterline) disappearing into the green water and waiting for it to come back up again.... a bit un-nerving. Our biggest concern was the windows in the trunk cabin blowing in under the water. And that was before it arrived. We went into Port Jefferson on Long Island where we anchored for the night ( two anchors out, a 35 lb Danforth and a 27 lb Danforth.). ....Now Port Jeff is a big harbor with some reasonably high land surrounding it so we were somewhat protected in the lee of the shore. When we got up the next morning there were a number of boats on the beach, a couple overturned and sunk and some store front windows blown out in town. That time was obviously unintentional.
The next time was about 1977. A small hurricane was heading toward the Jersey shore. My dad, brother and I did take the boat out and stayed aboard. The river we were on in NJ is actually known for having the highest ground right on the coast of any place between Maine and Florida. The routine there is to anchor right up against the shore under the lee of the high ground. We were up to about 1:30 am when things started diminishing, at times we used the engines to take some of the strain off the anchor line. There was a big old heavy sailboat anchored in front of us and when the wind caught the top of her masts she would heel over pretty well under bare poles.
Mind you, both those times were small barely Cat one hurricanes with maybe 3-5 ft tide surges.
A hurricane like Florence?????? No way in hell!!! They had there chance with numerous days notice to move the boats to the best place they could find, or to move up or down the coast. The idea of swimming off??? They might just as well stay aboard and go with the boat.
