Tornado

Tornado
05/23/11
We thought we were well out of the hurricane zone and safely tucked away upstream .....

Don was away when I experienced my first tornado - and (I hope) my last !!!  I was happily relaxing on the couch in the salon when the sunlight disappeared - I rushed upstairs to get the washing off the lifelines and within seconds the day had turned into night, pelting horizontal rain drenched me and strong winds made retrieving the washing very difficult.  At the time we had an awning covering the boat - the wind immediately broke the first two lines holding the awning down which set up a domino effect- the lines continued to snap as the awning sailed up in the air - it came to rest on the mast now forming a sail which in turn, with the wind behind it, rammed White Rose into the dock knocking me off my feet.  Two boaters came to my rescue and helped pull the awning down to the base of the mast where I grabbed rope and tied it in a bundle - Dick (Dickinson) being one of the rescuers noticed all my hatches open and dropped them from the outside - we were all drenched, clothing sticking to our frames.  The wind whipped up waves of several feet in the quiet little bay.  The rain was followed by hail - yes hail in summer! the size of golf balls!  I ended up with many bruises on my arms and legs from the hail.  I was shocked that such a ferocious storm could hit without any forewarning – no one had forecast it nor knew it was likely.  I was shaken and the inside of the boat was drenched - which as luck would have it included my new computer - I turned it upside down and drained a cup of water from its insides - that was the last straw - I cried - what else could I do ??  I tried to phone Don but couldn't get in touch with him which was probably a good thing no point worrying him also.

No damage to the boat but really scared me - usually radio and tv give warnings with alarms of expected bad weather but there was none for this one, it took everyone by surprise.  I found fishing tackle boxes which were packed away inside lockers with cushions over the top that had their handle cavities full of water - that was the strength of the rain.  The storm passed over after only 10 minutes but seemed like hours.  I turned my computer upside down in a V to drain and it gave me the fright of my life 2 nights later when it started up - did the start up chiming and blue glow - spooky !!!  It has permanent damage but I was able to copy the information from the hard drive.  For the next few weeks I was constantly nervous about the weather and leaving the boat, the tornado had really unsettled me.  There were reports of 75 mile per hour winds with trucks blown off bridges, lots of trees down and houses with damage.