We're having fun now...

Last night around 0200 we rolled out of the V berth to check likes and fenders as a storm rolled overhead. First Light bucked, pitched, and rolled enough to make walking a bit of a challenge, but nothing like the other day. As things settled down we crawled into the rack and were gently rocked back to sleep. This morning we woke to puffy white clouds wafting across a blue sky and gentle breezes. The Weather Mate forecast had yet another line blowing through later in the day, but the only evidence in the sky came from the obvious shear, with upper level clouds going one direction, the light surface winds coming from another direction, and the mid-level clouds moving in yet a third direction. It didn't look threatening but I know enough about the weather to suspect something was up. Still, a nice morning is a nice morning. Deb and I checked all the lines then went for a longish walk. By the time we got back to the boat the winds were blowing a steady 20 to 25. We checked the lines again and decided to shorten up the port side bow lines a little. Everything else looked okay.

An hour or so later the sky out to the west turned dark. Bubble clouds hung from the ragged bottoms, there was the hint of a roll cloud on the leading edge, and the winds ramped up off the starboard bow to better than 30 knots. We should have shortened up the starboard stern lines as well. As the gust front blew through I found myself pushing the boat off the port side aft piling while Deb shortened up the aft starboard lines. Lighting flashed overhead accompanied by thunder claps that shook the boat. The abandoned boat off to our starboard side was leaning hard on its pilings. A passing thought was just how ugly things might get if its windward lines failed and it its stern managed to slip between the pilings.

All of that was a while ago. Now there is a light rain falling and the boat is rocking gently in the slip. The WX maps show that the first cold front has passed with a second one inbound, looking to arrive in the next day or so. The sky is blue with white wisps of clouds and the winds have shifted out of the west and died to less than 10 knots. Dead calm compared to what it has been. It has also quit pushing the water into the bay and the water level has dropped what looks to be nearly two feet. Enough to that the big step up from the dock to the deck has become a step down. The next few days are forecasted to be breezy but sunny. 

The weather is much more a part of living on a boat than it was living on land. We keep a constant eye to the forecast and the sky. Most of our plans revolved around what Mother Earth is sending our way, what days we travel, what days we wait, and what tasks we might attempt doing on the boat on those days when we are waiting. It is always among the things we think about. And, sometimes, when the wind blows and boat starts to rock it is the only thing we think about.