The wind was picking up and Bel Sito was uncharacteristically moving around on her mooring ball in Annapolis Harbor. There was a big blob of a deep orange and maroon mass pictured on the WeatherBug radar app and it was moving toward the pin that marked our spot in the Harbor. I watched for awhile and kept looking at the app until it updated and warned we were going to be hit be 48-mph gusts.
This struck me as an all-hands-on-deck moment so I woke Richard and we had a 'meeting' in the pilot house. I had already turned on the switches on the panel that enable the engines to start if we broke free of the mooring and had to keep the boat in place under power.
Bel Sito swung from south to east to south to north and visibility was near zero. The engines were now on and we were ready if the 1-inch line holding her to the ball chafed through and couldn't stand the strain.
This is why (without the question mark) we do this.
To experience nature this intimately isn't possible from the confines of a condo or a house. How often do you think about the wind shifting otherwise? Being able to witness AND experience these periodic moments of extreme weather make the otherwise comfortable days aboard a boat all the more interesting. Of course, we are not in Kansas, Toto.
Participating in a storm as the wind makes flags stand straight out and lightening illuminates the sight of a solid sheet of water coming down around you is a real experience. Hearing and feeling the wind as it moves tonnage around like a rubber duck in a bathtub is something land lubbers don't know.
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| Bel Sito in Annapolis Harbor |
And don't care to, thank you, some of you may be thinking.
