Heck of a Storm

So Charlie mentioned a derecho the other day and I'd never even heard the term until the day after it hit. I was working on my boat at the Cambridge marina on a Friday night, getting ready for a family cruise the next day across the bay to Herrington Harbor when off in the distance I see lightning. Well crap, I thought so I looked at my radar app on my phone and saw this red line of storms literally jump across the screen as if there were an issue with the radar feed. So I closed the app and re-started it and it did the same thing. I then looked at the sky again and I could see the lightning getting closer. I did a quick calc and figured I had 15 min tops to get everything loaded up and closed up. Well I got all the hatches battened and truck loaded up when the wind hit like a tornado. I had loosened the stern line to let the boat sit closer to the dock for ease of getting on and off the boat and now the wind was blowing so hard I could not use the stern line to pull the boat away from the finger pier! I ran over to the leeward side, sat on the deck with my back against the coaming and was able to push the stern off the finger pier and drop a fender between my legs. I then sat on the pier and pushed the boat off again and dropped a could more fenders down there. With the boat as secure as I could get it I ran down the dock and as I passed by a crab boat with 2 plastic kayaks on top of it, they both blew off and scared the crap outta me. Then when I reached the end of the dock there is a 6" water main that has an above ground loop with a valve on top of it and for reasons unknown to me the valve just exploded and water started shooting out everywhere!! Now I was sure I was going to die LOL as I jumped into my truck. I was going to wait it out there but then trees on the street I normally leave on starting losing branches! As I was pulling a 14' enclosed trailer I wasn't anxious to drive 35 miles back home to Salisbury but really didn't want to sit in that storm either so I headed out a different way and made it out unscathed thankfully. I then headed down Rt. 50 and thankfully had a tailwind as there was absolutely no wind noise in my old '88 Ford truck. I made it home safe and sound but we cancelled our cruise as the marina we were going to had no power and some other damage. That's my heck of a storm story. Was very thankful we hadn't left that night as we had originally planned! Paul

Wow! Ground Zero, indeed. I experienced one of those a few years back in DC area. It blew giant oak trees over as if they were saplings. Crazy act of nature. From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 8:53 AM To: ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: [Cal_Boats] Heck of a Storm So Charlie mentioned a derecho the other day and I'd never even heard the term until the day after it hit. I was working on my boat at the Cambridge marina on a Friday night, getting ready for a family cruise the next day across the bay to Herrington Harbor when off in the distance I see lightning. Well crap, I thought so I looked at my radar app on my phone and saw this red line of storms literally jump across the screen as if there were an issue with the radar feed. So I closed the app and re-started it and it did the same thing. I then looked at the sky again and I could see the lightning getting closer. I did a quick calc and figured I had 15 min tops to get everything loaded up and closed up. Well I got all the hatches battened and truck loaded up when the wind hit like a tornado. I had loosened the stern line to let the boat sit closer to the dock for ease of getting on and off the boat and now the wind was blowing so hard I could not use the stern line to pull the boat away from the finger pier! I ran over to the leeward side, sat on the deck with my back against the coaming and was able to push the stern off the finger pier and drop a fender between my legs. I then sat on the pier and pushed the boat off again and dropped a could more fenders down there. With the boat as secure as I could get it I ran down the dock and as I passed by a crab boat with 2 plastic kayaks on top of it, they both blew off and scared the crap outta me. Then when I reached the end of the dock there is a 6" water main that has an above ground loop with a valve on top of it and for reasons unknown to me the valve just exploded and water started shooting out everywhere!! Now I was sure I was going to die LOL as I jumped into my truck. I was going to wait it out there but then trees on the street I normally leave on starting losing branches! As I was pulling a 14' enclosed trailer I wasn't anxious to drive 35 miles back home to Salisbury but really didn't want to sit in that storm either so I headed out a different way and made it out unscathed thankfully. I then headed down Rt. 50 and thankfully had a tailwind as there was absolutely no wind noise in my old '88 Ford truck. I made it home safe and sound but we cancelled our cruise as the marina we were going to had no power and some other damage. That's my heck of a storm story. Was very thankful we hadn't left that night as we had originally planned! Paul

It was likely the same storm as this was a few years ago and I've not heard of one since . . .thankfully!! Paul From: 'TomDressler' tb… [at] verizon.net [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> To: Cal_Boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com>; pwestla <pw… [at] aol.com> Sent: Thu, Dec 22, 2016 12:00 pm Subject: RE: [Cal_Boats] Heck of a Storm Wow! Ground Zero, indeed. I experienced one of those a few years back in DC area. It blew giant oak trees over as if they were saplings. Crazy act of nature. From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 8:53 AM To: ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: [Cal_Boats] Heck of a Storm So Charlie mentioned a derecho the other day and I'd never even heard the term until the day after it hit. I was working on my boat at the Cambridge marina on a Friday night, getting ready for a family cruise the next day across the bay to Herrington Harbor when off in the distance I see lightning. Well crap, I thought so I looked at my radar app on my phone and saw this red line of storms literally jump across the screen as if there were an issue with the radar feed. So I closed the app and re-started it and it did the same thing. I then looked at the sky again and I could see the lightning getting closer. I did a quick calc and figured I had 15 m in tops to get everything loaded up and closed up. Well I got all the hatches battened and truck loaded up when the wind hit like a tornado. I had loosened the stern line to let the boat sit closer to the dock for ease of getting on and off the boat and now the wind was blowing so hard I could not use the stern line to pull the boat away from the finger pier! I ran over to the leeward side, sat on the deck with my back against the coaming and was able to push the stern off the finger pier and drop a fender between my legs. I then sat on the pier and pushed the boat off again and dropped a could more fenders down there. With the boat as secure as I could get it I ran down the dock and as I passed by a crab boat with 2 plastic kayaks on top of it, they both blew off and scared the crap outta me. Then when I reached the end of the dock there is a 6" water main that has an above ground loop with a valve on top of it and for reasons unknown to me the valve just exploded and water started shooting out everywhere!! Now I was sure I was going to die LOL as I jumped into my truck. I was going to wait it out there but then trees on the street I normally leave on starting losing branches! As I was pulling a 14' enclosed trailer I wasn't anxious to drive 35 miles back home to Salisbury but really didn't want to sit in that storm either so I headed out a different way and made it out unscathed thankfully. I then headed down Rt. 50 and thankfully had a tailwind as there was absolutely no wind noise in my old '88 Ford truck. I made i t home safe and sound but we cancelled our cruise as the marina we were going to had no power and some other damage. That's my heck of a storm story. Was very thankful we hadn't left that night as we had originally planned! Paul

Squalls and storms are always worse when our boats are near hard objects and we can't just wait them out. A long time ago I was powering up the Saginaw River (Lake Huron) to the marina in my other boat with some bad weather appearing in the sky. Suddenly the cement plant on the river bank ahead looked like it had exploded--a huge cloud of dust. It was the squall hitting. We were next. I couldn't keep the boat headed into the wind with the outboard so I turned and ran downriver with the wind until things abated. I just remember thinking "Geez, the cement plant has blown up!" That other boat has her new bronze centerboard now. The old one was steel and after 5 years was losing the battle with rust. I would chip and prime it regularly but it was in the presence of copper-bearing bottom paint. It was actually worse than expected. When the yard extracted it, I could see that the portion in the pivot area, a place i could never reach for painting, was farther gone than I thought. The pivot pin was every bit as hard to extract as I had been told by other owners of this model. The yard crew sent me a bunch of photos of their drilling and cutting efforts. The pin came out reluctantly in small pieces. But now I have a thicker & heavier & rust-proof centerboard, my gift to the good old boat that I have sailed for 49 seasons now. Next year I'll have to have a little ceremony at launch time because it will be the 50th. A few years back when the boat herself turned 50 I took some champagne to the launch. My mother pointed out that the yard crew might not be allowed to drink on the job so I took some non-alcoholic bubbly too. She was right. We had an alcohol-free ceremony. Chris Campbell