Day 157, Year 9: Clanging, Banging Blizzard
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Weather: Snowy, Windy (30 to 50 mph winds), and Cold
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
While Jed is out of town, I stay at Heather’s until the boys are in bed and then I head home. Monday when I got home, the inside boat temperature was 58 degrees F. Last night when I got home it was 74 degrees F. I over-reacted to the cold the night before and left the heaters on high all day. So when I got home I turned them off for a bit to let things cool down. That didn’t take long and when I did turn them back on, I turned them down a bit. Mistake again. Around 4 am I woke up to a very loud clanging and banging sound and a very cold boat. The blizzard had hit and winds were blowing 30 to 50 knots. The plastic cover doesn’t do well in winds over 30 knots. The whole boat starts shaking and swaying. I had no idea what the clanging and banging was about, but Mark and I had heard the same sound during the last windy storm and could not figure out what was causing it. So I assumed the boat wasn’t sinking and I tried to go back to sleep. I moved into the main cabin, but the noise was just as loud there. So sleeping was a no go. The noise was just too loud and the boat was too cold. I turned the heaters up to full blast and by daybreak, the temperature was up to 66 degrees F and tolerable. I got dressed and went out on the deck to try and figure out what was making all the noise and it was an easy discovery. The metal frame that holds up all the plastic has upright poles and a ridge pole. The ridge pole was attached to the top of the uprights by wire ties. Well, those wire ties had all popped from the constant movement caused by the strong winds and the ridge pole had slipped down between the upright poles and the plastic and at each end it was loose enough to constantly vibrate against the uprights making the ungodly noise. I tied ropes to each end, threw the loose end of the ropes up and over the boom and pulled from the other side to slip the ridge pole back up and into place. I then tied down the ropes and the noise stopped. Success. But it was just too windy out for me to even open the door to look out. I waited until 8:30 to call Heather to tell her I was going to stay holed up until things settled down a bit, but about that time it got even rowdier with stronger gusts. I covered my head with a pillow and tried to get a little sleep. I was somewhat successful, but when I noticed that things were calmer (the wind instruments were now reading a pretty steady 30 knots), I decided to get up and get ready to go help Heather with the boys. About that time she called asking if I had taken the van keys by mistake. I had, so thankfully she didn’t have an emergency and I got the keys to her so she could back the van out of the drive way she had just shoveled. By this time all the snow had stopped but it stayed windy most of the afternoon. The wind is now down to 15 to 20 knots with gusts to 25. But that seems calm. And when I got home tonight the temperature inside was 70 degrees. So I finally got that right. Miracles never cease.
Jed got more bad news yesterday. His grandmother in Baltimore died. He lost his dad at the beginning of March and now his dad’s mother. Jed, we’re thinking of you and will do our best to hold down the fort until you can return. Hopefully April will bring better weather and happier times.
