The First Winter Windstorm

Well, we woke up this morning to wicked winds from the SE, which eventually got up to 40 knots out on the Juan de Fuca. Right here in the marina, a really large cleat tore out of the wood edging on the dock, and we've now had to tie up the Harbour Turtle to a different cleat. As Michael and some of the neighbours were dealing with that problem, there was a shout from the 'north 40' - the Ocean River extra dock was 'separating' - rapidly - from our main docks! It took 5 men to pull it back in and get it re-tied against the wind. Thank God these guys were all out on the docks checking on their own boats.

One of Ocean River's huge outrigger's is probably damaged, too - it was up on blocks on the edge of the parking lot, and got blown against a heavy chain link fence. I looked to see if they'd uprighted it, just before dark, but it's still laying over. I guess they're waiting until the wind stops ... which is supposed to be tonight, or early morning. It's 6 pm now, and it's still blowing 28 knots at Discovery Island, so it hasn't slowed down much yet.

Apart from these anxious moments, I LOVE living aboard in a storm! One of the most wonderful things about living aboard is simply being closer to the elements, and there's no time that's more obvious than during a storm. It's a great feeling to be safely tied up to a solid dock, but rocking to the wind at the same time -- hearing it howling through the halyards of the sailboats around us and funneling through the Upper Harbour just beyond the marina. I love to 'hunker down' warm and cozy in the cabin on nights like this. When we first moved aboard, friends (who didn't know us very well!) would call on nights like this, and invite us to stay 'in town' with them... we always declined, and it took awhile for folks to 'get' that we really DID prefer to stay right here on the Wind Walker!

The wind is supposed to calm down by morning, and that will have been our first major winter storm.