It’s everywhere – the art of life and the art in life. We only have to stand on the shore, surrounded by water, clouds and reflections to see it. Better yet…. to feel it. These are the beautiful energy filled moments that we let go, decompress…unwind and relax.
Yesterday someone asked me how it feels to be out in a Sailboat when a heavy rainstorm comes through? What about lightning? What do we do? We hide inside the boat, LOL or sometimes we make a run for it just to get to the boat.
We have waited out lightning, rain and wind hiding behind a mangrove tree when we got caught in a storm on the beach. Ahead of the rain heavy winds usually come first. They can make it difficult to get back to your boat agains the tide and especially against tide and wind combined. Often we will sit and watch the storm approach from under the relative safety of our bimini. Our Bimini is basically a platform over the cockpit area where we sit and also drive the boat from. We currently have four 100 watt solar panels up there. This combined with a waterproof canvas area running from the Bimini toward the bow and over the companion way, keeps us dry. If the rain is blowing sideways we can still watch the storm from standing inside our galley looking out.
On the bright side, no pun intended, we do not usually have the tallest mast in the harbor. They say lightning can hit the taller masts first.
One of the most important things a boater can do, besides have the best anchor with plenty of chain for it, is to keep a close eye on the weather, especially the radar view. Weather is changing all of the time and you should never go out to sea without checking the weather first. Our current journey is on the intercoastal waters of the Southwest Florida coast so we are not as effected by the storm’s accompanying waves as we would be out on the Gulf, in an Ocean or on the Great Lakes.
I grew up boating. My parents took us all boating as babies. Camping for us was staying overnight on our boat. The storms seem part of the normal boating routine for me. It is interesting to me that if I was home in my house and there was a major storm I would not go outside the house. On a boat is is so different because in many ways we already live outside!
To view a photo gallery of nature’s are moments please click on the title of this post.
