The Storms of Summer

Summer on the prairie always has it's exciting storms.  The other day the warning sirens blew and the clouds rolled in.  It did not take The Commander too long to get into high worry gear.  The radar showed a big mess coming from the west. Waiting for a storm is like waiting to get kicked in the ass.  The big storm showed up and it was a whopper.  The trees bent as far as they could.  Some went too far and broke. 

The next morning always tells the story.  Indeed there seemed to be a record number of branches down in the city.  A steady line of trucks headed for the tree dump North of town.  Strangely for the extreme force of the wind there was very little property damage.  Thankya Jeesus there was no hail.  All the Kadizzles needed was hail to pound the new camper into oblivion.   Our yard did not get hit too hard.  Two loads to the dump did the job for the Kadizzles.

After all this the good ship Sovereign headed out on the open seas Thursday night.  Every night lately seems to include a storm.  As the boats tied up to the shore in Pochant Bay The Commander was concerned about another storm approaching.  Extra anchors and shore lines were set, but after a moderate blow the boats were fine.  The storm had a classic menacing wall of wind that was very spectacular to see in the sky above.

Friday night the ruler of the winds showed mercy and the good ship spent a peaceful night at anchor in Moose Bay.  Ruth and Rodger anchored to the East of the Sovereign and both ships had room to swing.

When morning came the Sovereign headed west Hide Out  headed home to the East.  On the Edge captained by Chuck got an early start from Shark's tooth where he had spent the night with the Johnson's tied to the shore.  Sovereign and On the Edge headed west under favorable winds to Heaven Bay.  After a nice sail, and a good swim, another storm showed up on The Commanders radar.   The storm looked very nasty and was headed right at us.  Chuck and The Commander had lines strung everywhere to hold us in place.  Besides all the lines two anchors were out.   With a great flourish the storm appeared on schedule. The clouds swirled and seemed to act like they were trying to form a tornado.  After a short strung gust the whole thing went by and did not amount to much excitement. As a bonus the storm left two nice rainbows in it's wake.

The big storm that hit Hazen at the beginning of this tale did have some consequences on the lake.  Our dock with four boats was torn from shore.  In a stroke of genius a very large shoe box shaped house boat was tied to our docks.  The giant shoe box fifty feet long and 13 feet high present more than adequate surface to the wind to tear the docks loose.  The gang plank to the dock was completely torn loose, and the other stiff arm was half torn away.  Luckily the whole mess was forced ashore with minimal damage to the boats.

In a week or two the fleet will head west for the week long sail.  Surely there will be storms and Chinese fire drills.  The best Chinese fire drill happen when the storm hits the boats at about one A.M.  Half asleep sailors in a wine induced haze jump from their boats and scramble to keep their boats from turning into a pile of fiberglass. The lines are tightened, more stakes are driven, and the sailors are soaked, but it all leads to a great story in the log book, so it is all worthwhile as long as no one gets hurt.  Fun with lightening on the prairie playing a round of Dare to Be Stupid.