BS3 03 – The Storm
What on earth is so hard about writing out a blog post? One silly little post about literally anything. Any subject you please. The post can be as long or as short as you please. It can be good or bad, happy or sad, informational, inspiring, or just altogether tiring, it doesn’t matter – as long as there is a post.
And why? Why exactly, do we post? Does anyone ever read them? Does anyone even care? Who knows. I certainly don’t know. Our website has tools that could probably track all of that information if I really wanted to, but I don’t. I don’t really care to know. That doesn’t matter.
No, instead I prefer to think that my bi-monthly posting here is my personal project. A goal I have set to assist me in sifting through all of the outside noise and re-aligning my thoughts. It is therapeutic for me, I think. A moment or two set aside to reflect upon and give respect to my personal experiences.
It works for me, that’s all I can say.
So what am I to write about now? Oh yes, something frivolous. Back to that. Maybe I’ll write about the usually clear, turquoise waters here – which are now brownish with all the churning which just took place in the latest storm. Oh, that was a nasty one! I wonder how long it’ll take the waters to clear, it was that intense!
I was awake about 3am and remember looking out while using the restroom and thinking that SV Animaashi must have been wrong with his 2am prediction of a lightening storm, because I could see nothing happening outside. We had seen evidence of offshore storms earlier in the evening but they seemed to all be gone now, so maybe it would happen much later? Maybe. I went back to bed.
An hour later I was awakened again by the sounds of lightning and thunder crackling all around us, very close and rapid, and then suddenly the rains came. It poured down rain. So hard, that you couldn’t see to the boat on the ball next to you. Just lots and lots of water, pouring out of the skies. It would ease a bit now and again, The pummeling rain would ease a bit now and again and then came the hail, nice large chunks dotting the water. The noise of it all deafening to hear.
Hail. It had been 100 degrees Fahrenheit over the past several days, with the heat index truly representing triple digits, and now we were being threatened with large chunks of ice. ICE! I was absolutely convinced that a tornado was coming through. One by one we watched as water filled every receptacle, sinking nearby kayaks and dinghies while there was nothing we could do. Nothing anyone could do. It was truly disheartening.
The storm itself was bad enough but there were also the winds shifting us all around on the harbor floor, which can be disconcerting in and of itself but at least you are acutely aware that you are still tethered to a mooring ball. Suddenly though, all at once, this crazy wind came from nowhere and hit the harbor, tearing through it like nobody’s business!
It was like one truly rogue, high speed wind and when it hit us, it hit us broadside and spun us so fast that we were completely disoriented, and on top of that, the jolt from the hit sent things flying everywhere, and we’re on a catamaran! Several other radio users within the harbor also reported being tipped over with large messes left to clean, and there was at least one major incident of an anchored boat that got loose, but the community here sprang into action and fortunately mitigated any major issues!
This was a first for us. This was not the worst storm we’ve ever been in by far, not the longest, not the craziest, not the most intense, but it was a TOTAL experience. One of those things where you never quite get the photos of it as it happens but which your brain has already burned into it’s core so that you will also never forget. One of those types of things.
Oh, and for the second time, we lost our blue and white bean bag chair in that major high wind gust! Again this time, there was nothing we could do except watch it float away and hope to catch it if it were to float back by later on. A quick inspection of everything else revealed that we were safe in that the chair was the only thing we had lost, though there was lots of other flotsam and jetsam littering the harbor from other boats.
We later answered a radio call regarding a navy blue bean bag chair floating down the channel which we thought was ours, until William made the dinghy run and returned with a navy blue and teal green bean bag chair. I did post a pic of it to the harbor website and report it had been retrieved but no one ever claimed it, so we kept it. We also later found our navy blue and white bean bag chair floating near the mangroves. Yay!
So anyway, this is all the reasoning behind the waters being not so beautifully clear and turquoise colored currently. Storms occasionally pass through and stir things up until everything settles again and life returns to normal. It may take a bit but we’ll get there, eventually. After all, every day with us is always an adventure!
Until next time my dear friends, fair winds and following seas!
