The Stupid Storm

WARNING - If you haven't read "the Solomons", one it means you aren't reading in order, I can barely make sense of the days so reading them backwards won't help any. And two you won't understand the beginning of this story. So go back and read at least the last paragraph before continuing.

So we left you anchored safely on Thursday. During the day, we took a dinghy ride into town. We actually went into a West Marine (THE store) and came out without having spent a cent! Truly a day to remember. Upon returning to the boat, the winds had picked up and we could see a front (front is a meteorological term for nasty weather) coming. Somehow it just missed us. We could see it right on the other side of the creek.

Later in the evening, around 7pm (the time is important, you'll see), josh noticed another front coming. Because of all the trees (trees are good for protection, but bad for seeing incoming weather) we hadn't noticed the clouds until last minute. We turned on the VHF to listen to the weather. (Non-boater explanation- VHF is a radio in which a funny little automated voice tells you the weather for your area and surrounding areas. It's also used to call other boats and marinas.)

The weather "man" said there was a tornado watch #447 until 8pm and another watch #454 until 1am. Now the problem is they give tornado watches and warnings (a watch means that there's a storm that could produce a tornado. a warning means that a tornado has been spotted) by county. But on marine charts they don't list counties. Plus they mention little tiny points of land or islands. So if you aren't familiar with area it could take you a while before figuring out whether it applies to you or not.

Ok back to the weather, not only was there 2 tornado watches but one watch turned to a warning as a tornado touched down about 15 miles south of us. Also, following that grim news, there was also a severe weather warning for our area. Severe weather, I think translates into storm from hell! We didn't think we'd get it soooo bad, considering we were on the most Northern part of the announcements. We realized afterwards that we were only on the most Northern part, because the weather only transmits to where we are. The other station reports the Solomons and North.

Well the storm came. I was just hoping for no hail. I didn't want holes in our new canvas work! Luckily because of the trees, we were somewhat sheltered from the winds. It rained hard. The worse though was the lightning. Being a little thing with a very tall metal stick makes lightning a little fearful, to say the least. We have never seen a storm like that before in our lives. the lightning lit up the sky like thousands of little LED lights.

Because the storm approached so quickly, we didn't think we had time to put out another anchor. So we stayed up watching to make sure we weren't dragging. Well this craziest went on until 1am. At around 12:30am, I saw a bolt of lightning come across our boat and it looked like it hit the boat next to us. A split second after the flash came and ear-splitting CRACK. We both jumped to attention and stared out the window. We could still see their anchor light on (the little light on top of the mast). Then Josh checked to see if OUR anchor light was still visible. It wasn't. They hadn't gotten hit, WE HAD!!!! There wasn't much we could do, so once the storm died down, we went to bed.

In the morning Josh went to inspect the damages. Most of our electronics had been zapped. *Attention* unexplained boating terms. We think it fried our Seatalk, the brain of our electronics. thankfully our chartplotters work but there's no gps signal. The speed is completely dead. All the engine gauges are also deceased except for the oil pressure. The VHF antenna is no longer and somehow only one of the interior got fritzed. We are also very lucky that there are on burn marks or spider fractures on the deck and that all thru-hulls seem to be intact. I don't believe we took a direct hit. As bad as it may seem, it could have been much, much worse.

So the insurance company has been called. (I don't know what kind of luck I have with insurance stuff. For those who remember me crashing my car 5 days after getting it. I guess I want to make sure I'm not paying insurance for nothing!) We are now tied up at a boatyard awaiting an estimate. They will then send the estimate to the surveyor, who will send it to the adjustor, who will in turn approve the work to be done. Only after all that is done, will they start the work on the boat. This process should take no less than 2 *@#^*% weeks!!!!!

So Josh and I were just wondering if anyone wanted to take a vacation to Maryland???!!!

We miss you all lots
Roxanne and Josh

This is just a little clip taken before the storm actually really got going!