Wild Weather Day
21 April 2012 | Georgetown, SC
We started the day waiting for the fog to lift enough for us to be able to see the drawbridge that was only a few minutes away from where we’d docked. When it did and we got underway, we had to zip closed the clear side panels of our cockpit enclosure because the breeze was chilly. By noon, with the sun out we rolled up the side curtains because it got warm and humid. Later in the afternoon we took the two rolled up side panels out and replaced them with screen panels because our cockpit was becoming a gathering place for greenhead flies. They weren’t biting, but they would fly in and not be able to figure out how to get out. Then, as we were traveling up a long land cut canal within an hour from our day’s destination it started to rain lightly. When we came out of the land cut and turned up the river towards Georgetown, a severe thunderstorm suddenly engulfed us. We spent about a half hour basically motoring at a slow enough speed that the outgoing tide and the strong winds in our face held us more or less in one spot against very strong winds, sideways torrential rain, and thunder and lightning. Of course, we’d had no time to swap the screen panels back for the window panels, so the rain also blew into and thoroughly washed the cockpit and its occupants. Lastly, just as we got finished tying up at the dock in Georgetown’s Harborwalk Marina, another small thunderstorm passed nearby and doused us with rain again. That one was nice enough to give us enough warning that we got the clear side panels all in and zipped up before it rained, so we got out he wine and cheese and crackers and sat in the enclosed cockpit as the storm made its way through. There is more rain forecast for overnight and tomorrow morning so we are planning to spend tomorrow and tomorrow night here as well. The picture today is of an alligator that swam across the canal in front of us. It’s the second alligator I saw, but the first one I was quick enough to get a picture of. The first one was quietly swimming along the river bank behind the dock at Jekyll island Marina. The Captain