Saturday, January 22, 2011

Marathon – High winds from storm heading up the coast

Good lunch, better get back to the boat
The day started out calm enough with full sun but quickly followed by a dense fog. We had heard about a strong winter storm predicted for the east coast by Tuesday and we saw the front coming as far south as Marathon sometime today. We had some time before it hit us, besides how bad could it be this far south?! (ha)

So off we went for a late lunch around 2:00 at a local fish restaurant and saw dense, dark clouds gathering on the horizon. We still had time so we finished up and headed for the dinghy dock. The further along we got, the more ominous the clouds looked. The winds started to pipe up as we motored back to the boat but we got aboard before the rain came.

The storm was coming!
We settled down to watch the progress of the storm. First came the blast of wind from the leading edge of the front, it peaked out at 30+ kts and has held steady between 25 to 30 right up to now, 8:30 pm. The winds are much higher a few miles out in the ocean or bay. If the storm gathers strength as it heads north, as predicted, then it’s going to be some storm! The wind is howling like a banshee – still! Luckily we’re in a very protected harbor on a mooring with no fetch in front of us, we just have to deal with the wind and it’s a short trip in for Hoolie relief.

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