Monday, July 19, 2021

T Stands for Storms at Sea

 Hi and happy T day everyone.

As promised today I will share my boating adventure story from Friday. It will probably be rather dull as I mentioned it before, and I am sure people built it up to be more than it was. I will also warn you, this is a long post. Sorry!

Friday last week was a decent day weather wise. Seeing we've had a lot of dark and rainy days this July, my husband took a vacation day from work, and we decided to go out in his boat. We hadn't been out since June, which shows you how wet the weather has been.

First let me explain that we store the boat on it's trailer; we don't keep it in the water all summer. However, instead of pulling it back and forth from home we leave  and store the trailer at the marina. They have a big field where they put very large boats in winter, and during the summer the field is not as full, so we keep the boat there. Although we pay to store it, it doesn't cost a lot and comes out less than the cost of the gas we would used to trailer it home and back. Plus it saves a lot of hassle that to moving it back and forth between home and the marina's boat ramp would cause. 

When we got to the boat that morning, my husband went to hook the trailer up to his truck. That's when he realized that part of the trailer not needed for driving had broken.


I found this nice photo on the internet to explain if you aren't familiar with boat trailers. If you look on the bottom left side you see a part called the jack stand. It would be down  (as shown in the diagram) in order to store the boat when not in use. It keeps the trailer parallel to the ground so the bottom of the boat sits flat. When you are driving on a road trailering the boat, you would flip up the jack stand and and tighten it so that little wheel is not touching the road.

When we arrived Friday the crank that turns up the jack stand so we could move the boat down to the water had snapped a pin, and it wouldn't move into the up position. The first thing we had to do was leave and go find another jack sand, and we had to  come back and replace it. Luckily we found one at Harbor Freight Tools, and my husband could replace it and remove the old one, so all that it really did was set us back  about 90 minutes of boating time.
 
We put the boat into the water.
It was a nice day, humid and hot, and the water was calm, so I suggested we cruise 6 miles out to the Isles of Shoals to have our picnic lunch. It is much cooler being the 6 miles offshore than being right on the shore. The hubby liked that idea so we cruised out and tied off to one of the empty moorings in Gosport Harbor.  As it was Friday, there wasn't a lot of boat traffic or boats in the harbor.

I've mentioned the Isles of Shoals before. They are a group of small islands that are parts of  the states of New Hampshire and Maine.  


This  one in the above photo is Star Island and Gosport Harbor would be on the left where you see a couple of boats.

And this next photo is Smuttynose. Due to the angle of the photo as we were anchored in the Harbor when I took it, Gosport Harbor would be in front of it; the water is actually in the harbor.


Between those 2 islands is a man made seawall which creates this harbor.


This above photo is looking deeper into the harbor from out boat which was moored on one of the white moorings, just like you can see in this above photo.

And yes, if the sky looks  dark that's because while we were there we had not 1 but 2 storms comes through.


The first one wasn't too bad. The heavy rain went just beyond us so we had about 5 minutes of light wet.

 Now my husband's boat has what is called a cuddy cabin. It is small and not for living in. We use it for storage, and it does have some cushions, so one person could lay down and say, take a nap in there. (Or in our case usually a dog or two naps in there.)

During the rain, both my husband, myself and our 2 dogs squished into the cuddy cabin and waited out the storm. 




Then the sun was out again, and we thought that would be the random shower that those weather folks said could happen. We wiped off the seats and moved back outside. Pete and I even went for a swim off the back of the boat.


And since Maddie with her thick coat looked hot, my husband put her into the water to cool off. She likes to be wet and can swim great, but in the process she went underwater, which she didn't like.


I had barely dried off when we looked at the sky and saw this.


According the radar, which we were checking on our phones, this was a much larger storm with some thunder and lightening associated with it.

We would not miss it if we headed into shore, and we did feel safe being moored int he harbor.

Once again, into the cuddy cabin we went.

And the rain came down.


It took Maddie a little while to decide it was better to go into the cabin than stand in the rain, which meant even with a toweling, we also had a wet dog with us.




We had a bit of thunder and lightening too. 

The sun did come back out, and we went outside. I wish I had captured it on my camera, but I saw a big bolt of lightening  actually hit the water, closer than I would have liked. Luckily we were OK, and the storm moved quickly off the islands and further out to sea. It must have been rough out there though, as you can see the waves breaking on the rock jetty wall that close in the back of the harbor.


We heard later a private fishing boat had actually capsized further offshore, and the people had to be rescued by a Coast Guard Helicopter. Luckily no one was hurt.

Before the second storm was close enough to even know we would get it, I did snap a picture of my drink for T this week. (Be sure to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog for T this week.)


It's the floating Diet Coke bottle-smile.

Now I will finish my story. 

The day ended just as interesting as it began. On the way back to shore we stopped to do some mackerel fishing, and we had our best catch in a long time. All of them went back into the ocean, but we caught about around a dozen in a short period of time. 

On the way back to the marina, we pass through another onshore  harbor where a friend I used to teach with moors his sailboat. We saw him and some other people on it (2 more of my former co-worker friends), so we cruised over and tied up to chat for a little while.  In the process Miss Maddie hopped over onto his sailboat. She visited with everyone and then decided to take a nice long pee on his boat. How embarrassing. I guess a dog poop would have been worse.  (Good thing they were all dog people-smile).

At this point, it was time to go in, pull the boat out of the water and head home. I didn't need, nor want, any more adventures. 

This has taken me forever to write. Hop you enjoyed my day of boating adventures. And I apologize if this too too long for you to read also.  Smile.
Hope you have great T day and wonderful week ahead.

































17 comments:

Linda Kunsman said...

wow- what an adventure!!! Thankfully you all managed to keep safe. Exciting and a bit scary at the same time, and I would most likely have loved it for the most part:) Great photos!
Just though of it- our son and daughter in law are heading for NH on Friday for a weekend wedding he's in- their first time to that state. Will see if I can get more details next week;) Happy T day!

Sharon Madson said...

What and adventure! I think I would have been fearful in a storm on the water. Actually I have been in a smaller boat in the center large lake for 4th of July fireworks with about 60 other boats. We all high tailed it out of there when the thunderstorm hit! We had all been tied up together to watch fireworks, but didn't care to stay there and watch lightning!
I am glad you all and dogs, too, were safe from the storm, and even caught fish! Happy T Day!

craftytrog said...

What a lot of adventures in one day! Glad you survived those storms, and had some nice memories from the day. The swimming looks good.
Happy T-Day.
Alison xx

Mae Travels said...

You are really adventurous! I'd be very worried about a thunderstorm on the water, but then our current "boat" is an inflatable kayak. No shelter. Very dangerous in rain.

best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

Valerie-Jael said...

Oh my, Erika, what an adventure! You had enough of getting wet without Maddie peeing on another boat! Glad you are all stayed safe and were able to shelter in your cabin. You got some fabulous photos, too. You must have been exhausted by the time you got back home! Thanks for writing the long tale of your boating adventure, it was good reading it! Hugs, Valerie

Iris Flavia said...

Clever to store the boat like that. Glad you could repair the trailer. We had friends in Perth who dragged their (small) boat all the way to the ocean each time (they even made me steer that thing, oh, boy! I had NO FUN! Tuckered through the water like a baby... Ingo then went full speed, of course).

Wow, these are such beautiful pics!
And cute, and ohhh a swim!!!
Huhhhh, scary storm-pic! And sweet Maddie sure thinks it over in that pic! And thunder and lightening - lucky you, oh, it must´ve been so wonderful! Here just grey and cold.
Great COKE-pic.
Ingo once caught a mackerel - it tasted muddy - eww ;-)
I once stepped barefoot into warm dog-poo, lost my ice-cream, cause I fell (slippery!) and 30 years later lost a pair of shoes due to stepping in again.

I enjoyed this post a lot, though :-)
Ahhh the water!

sirkkis said...

What a busy adventurous day you had, Erika! Thanks for sharing the interesting photos. The photo where your husband and the dog look at each other made me smile, they both have so fun expression. The trailer is familiar to me. When my son as a student still lived at home his first sailing boat was on it by the strand near by. The end wasn't happy, it was stolen one day - lacily not the boat but the trailer. What kind of people do this kind things - it never turned out.
Here we have today the first cooler day after hot ones. The continuously 31 hot days period ended, and I like it did.
Have a nice, inspiring week ahead xx

nwilliams6 said...

Such great pictures of your boating adventure, Erika. Love the stormy sky pictures and the islands - glad you were safe! It is beautiful where you live! Fun to see you and our hubby and the dogs too. Fab post and happy T-day. Hugz

J said...

I enjoyed reading your story, sounds a bit scary being out once water in a storm though. Wet dogs, just what you need in a small space.
We had a boat trip once and swam out in the sea, great fun with the fish swimming around us.
The views from the boat look lovely, I can imagine it must have been much cooler out there
Happy T Day
Jan

Jeanie said...

Yikes. I freak on the water with a storm and I'm so glad you were safe (that lightning bolt is a tad scary!). Boy, those clouds were threatening and all the water in the boat! Glad the cuddy didn't flood! It sounds like quite a day for you from start to finish. (Glad the fishing was good, though!) (Your drink is the same as mine!)

I'm so glad you were safe. And I have to say, the name "Smuttynose Island" is just great. Wouldn't that be a fun address?!

Halle said...

I loved reading your tale. That was quite a day! I think I would have been more than a little afraid being on the water during the storms. Of course having a cabin to shelter in would definitely help.
Happy T Day

Divers and Sundry said...

Sounds like you had quite an adventure! My boating experiences as a child on small fishing boats in local lakes were never like this!

CJ Kennedy said...

That was quite the adventure! I have a friend who goes to Star Island for a retreat every year though she didn't go last year and I don't think this year either. Had to laugh at Maddie's timing. Kids! Another hot and humid day. Hit or miss storms expected this afternoon and evening. I hope more miss than hit. I'm tired of the rain. At least we won't have to worry about the well running dry. Happy T Day

Let's Art Journal said...

Wowo, that was an adventure! I loved seeing all your photos and that was quite a fierce looking storm, glad that you had somewhere to shelter - it looked such fun 😀. The dogs had a good time by the looks of it too. Happy T Day! Hugs, Jo x

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

What a fun read. I loved every word you wrote. What started as a day of great anticipation turned into a day of frustration at times and worry at others. So glad you were safe in the boat. Had to laugh at Maddie, but that was at least, the lesser of problems you encountered. Glad you took a photo of your diet coke before the skies opened up on you. Thanks for sharing your incredible boating tale with with us, along with your diet coke for T this Tuesday, dear friend.

Kate Yetter said...

Wow, so much happening in one day. I am not the adventurous type and being on a boat in a storm doesn't sounds like much fun. I am glad you all made it through and have a take to tell.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate

pearshapedcrafting said...

Goodness me! What adventurers you four are! Glad you got the trailer fixed! Your little space did look so cosy! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx