Joan and I went to Greg and Judy's HitchHiker for that visit. We talked about cats and kids, RVs and boats, caught up on what some other friends are doing, and just had a nice visit. When we were heading out, I said, "Come to the front door so I can get a picture"...
As we said our good-byes, Greg said, "There's a weather watch for severe thunderstorms for this evening. If it gets bad, we'll come by with our truck."
I laughingly said, "If it rains too much, we'll come by with our boat." We all chuckled and waved good-bye. As we walked back to the boat, the sky was looking pretty bad to the northwest. Oh - and lightning!
It started with a gust front - winds that rocked the boat. LOTS of lightning. And then the pounding, horizontal rain! We had our a/c through the center windshield. I said, "With the rain coming from behind us, that should be fine."
Yeah, I was wrong. In the middle of the worst of the rain, we pulled the a/c and battened down that window. The front panel was soaked. Joan got to it with a towel before any of our electronics got wet.
Then the first crash... a big branch blew down into the cockpit. That tree that we were happy to see at our site since it would provide shade... yeah, that tree was now dumping broken branches on us. I stepped out into the cockpit to toss the 30 pound branch overboard... and stepped into about 3 inches of water standing in the cockpit. Joan turned on the cockpit lights - the cockpit was filling up like a bathtub! Any higher and it would start leaking in the cabin door! I didn't have to worry about getting my feet wet, 'cause I was soaked to the skin in about 2 seconds once I stepped out. I tossed branches overboard, and opened a couple cockpit floor hatches to let the water pour into the bilge... the bilge pump would help get rid of our flood.
Now, some of you sailors are asking, "Why didn't the cockpit scuppers take care of the water?"
Thanks for asking. We are parked slightly downhill, allowing the water to run towards the cabin instead of the stern, like it would normally do if we were on the water.
Joan hollered out the cabin door, "Don't let the leaves get into the bilge - they'll clog the pump!"
"Kinda busy here right now!" I opened the hatch over the bilge pump and pulled out leaves and branches that went down with the water. We have had Wild Blue in some nasty weather on the water and never had this much water in the bilge. "Dry ground," my ass!
With wind gusting above 55 mph (according to the weather site we were watching), the boat rocked, but it wasn't much of a concern. All that lightning, and us under a tree... yeah, that was a concern!
Here's a photo I took right before the storm hit...
The sky was black - that light you see in the sky was from the lightning!
And here's what it all looked like when we first pulled in...
Yeah, that tree. It's down to a sprinkle now, and the occasional shudder of the boat from the wind. Tomorrow, I'll go out and check all around the boat and truck to see if there are any other surprises.
I'm guessing it's going to be real humid when this passes.
2 comments:
Hope all is well with the sudden TS. We parked at our friend's cabin in Idaho last year with the bow slightly downhill. Did not think about the rain until we left and all the tons of water in the bilge at the bow moved back to the stern and the two bilge pumps went to work, and work, and work.
Hi Herb, that rain really came down - horizontal! The reports on TV this morning said the area we are in had 70+ mph wind... too bad we didn't have the "pointy end" of the boat into it. All looks fine this morning, except some clean-up. Dirt and leaves in the cockpit, but the truck is shiny clean (it was downwind from the boat and not under the tree). ;-)
Post a Comment