Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It rained and rained and rained last night! It seemed to let up around 4 or 5 am, but only to a sprinkle followed by heavy rain and wind for most of the remainder of the morning. In addition to all the marine warnings mentioned in yesterday’s journal, there was a tornado watch for our immediate area. The thunderstorms were severe but there wasn’t a lot of thunder and lightning. Maureen tried to do some computer work during the strongest wind, but ended up feeling nauseated and had to lie down until it passed over. Gale worked on charting our intended and alternate courses from Port St. Joe to Tarpon Springs to Clearwater and beyond.

The afternoon skies started clearing some and the rain let up. Late in the afternoon, we ventured out to the showers and to let Lucy go for a walk. She was so eager to get off the boat that she misjudged her leap to the dock and fell in! No problem – she just swam to the stairs at the back of the boat while Maureen gave her a little boost back aboard. We pulled the boat close to the dock and stepped off without difficulty the second time.

We learned that many of the Loopers at Port St. Joe Marina were planning to eat at the Sunset Coastal Grille tonight and if we were interested, we needed to add our name to the list. Sounded like fun to us so we joined the group at 6 pm and spent a couple of hours getting to know some of these people a little better.



Just as we had finished eating, Clara, the manager of the marina, called to say that the water was rising over the transient dock and we needed to return as soon as possible. Since we had moved Blue Heron a few days ago, we were no longer on the lower “lay along” dock and did not have to step through any water to get to our boat. One of the cruising boats in a covered slip, had to move to the fuel dock because their fly bridge was getting too close to the overhead covering. The tide was about five feet, rather than the usual 1-1/2 to 2 feet. High surf and coastal flood warnings were now added to the Gale and Small Craft Advisories. There was a little bit more rain during the night, but the tide went back down to more normal levels and there were no further problems at the marina.