My First Gale

The other weekend I had my first storm on the boat. It was AMAZING.

Rain prep. Gotta put a tarp above the boom to prevent leaks.

I love the rain. Not in a I-want-to-go-run-out-in-it-and-get-soaked love. More like give me a thin roof over my head and let me listen to the pitter-patter, the drip drip drip and of course the roar. My childhood home had high ceilings with exposed beams and no noise dampening attics. In other words rain acoustics were top notch.

Staying warm and toasty down below

The storm's a coming 

Rain acoustics on the Pax are even better. There's the pitter-patters, the drip drip drips, the roar of the wind, the tink tink tink of lines hitting masts, and the lapping of the waves. But on a boat you don't just hear the storm, you feel it too. At one point the winds reached 32 mph. Usually the winds are a 6 (in the winter). Such force had the Pax tossing and pitching. With the wind roaring the rain battering down, and the boat being tossed around like a toy, I felt so small. Not the short small that my 5'2'' stature is used to feeling. The small, like I am just a speck of dust, in this great big world of ours. The small of seeing nature in (just some of her) glory and being in awe of her power. The small of realizing, even in the harbor, just how powerful the wind and the water could be. Truly, sitting down below I alternated between between slack jawed awe and adrenaline filled grins. Then I'd wonder how boats actually float, get paranoid about sinking, get paranoid about checking my lines, feel lazy and eventually check the lines.

Mid storm. Couldn't really capture it well with an iphone pic

My loved ones collectively sent me separate messages to "batten down the hatches" throughout the storm. Which I found at once touching and confusing. Did I know what batten down the hatches meant? Did they? Is that just something we tell to people when the storms are a coming?

The wind was really blowing. Are you impressed by the grass?

Also one last thought: fill up your water tank before the storm starts. Otherwise you'll be like me, half stumbling in galoshes out into the 32 mph winds that are hitting the starboard side, to get to the water pump access which is of course on the starboard side. And then you sit out there in the piercing wind and rain, clutching lines counting one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi.... and on until the damn tank is full.

After the storm

I can't wait until the next storm,
Marisa