stupid that is. I added just a little stupid to the world this past weekend. As Deb mentioned we were on the hook Friday and Saturday night rather than at the pier. Friday we were alone and enjoying having the cove all to ourselves. Deb pulled up the RADAR around midnight, (just before we called it a day) and found there was some stuff painting pretty far north. She asked what I thought we should do. I, being the expert weather / pilot type person that I am, decided that the weather probably wouldn't make it to us. Even if it did I announced that we would hear the thunder off in the distance and have plenty of time to secure the boat for what was sure to be a minor blow.
You know what happened next. At 0200 in the morning I flew out of the berth in my all-together with Nomad heeling over and swinging around her anchor under the onslaught of a vigorous gust front. Grabbing a pair of pants I headed up the companion way to try and tame the wildly flogging covers and Bimini. On deck the strobe lightning turned my Charley Chaplin routine into some kind of weird DEVO video. I was grabbing at lines and hugging canvas with one hand while trying to keep the pitching and windblown deck from tossing my (nearly) all-together self into the dark lake water with the other. (I should have grabbed a life vest instead of pants - now that would have been a scene!)
Fortunately the gust front hit before the rains came, giving us a chance to close up the boat and get some gear ready. The RADAR now showed that a massive storm system had spun up and would pummel the lake for hours. We sat wedged in the cabin until near dawn with the boat pitching and rolling, intermittent heavy rain falling and an entertaining (and close) lightning show. I made the trip forward a couple of times to check on the anchor. (With rain gear and life vest. I learn slow, but I learn.) Truth to tell, had we dragged all that would have happened is little Nomad would have settled herself into the mud bottom; exciting but with very little chance of serious damage. (Nomad, by the way, never dragged an inch. About the only smart thing I had done was set her over-sized CQR anchor good and hard, with 60+ foot of rode, in a place where we had plenty of room to swing.)
Saturday afternoon there were more storms forecast, and more red on the RADAR. This time we folded up the Bimini, got the wash boards out, set an extra line or two between the rafted up boats, (there were 3 of us) and laid out an extra anchor. We all decided to put off cooking until the storms had passed, chowing down on cheese, sausage and snacks while watching the approaching rain. And you know what happened next. The storms broke apart as they reached the lake, one going north of us, one south. We never felt even a single drop of rain or experienced more than a gentle breeze. But we were ready!
We did some sailing as well, with the best being the Friday evening run to the cove in a nice breeze. The rest of the weekend? Well, remember those calm days I said were bound to come? They did.
No comments:
Post a Comment