Ken & Irene Sailing South

Maryland is breaking us in with hot temps and 'wicked' storms. Friday night around 11:30 PM we were awakened by the wind howling. Coming from the NW, the wind picked up the waves and slammed them into our stern. They were so big that the boat would lift up and then slam down so hard that you wondered if it would hold together. The winds were blowing at 50 mph and gusting to 75. The good thing was it didn't last anymore than about an hour. What we didn't find out until morning was that one of the boats that was anchored a bit further up the river had broken loose and was headed right at us. The people on board managed to get control at the last minute and as they missed all the boats and the dock their anchor caught around the end piling and slammed it back into the dock and sideswiped the boat at the end. There was some damage to the end of the dock – electrical box almost broken off, a 'dish network' dish broken and a brand new ladder was lost. Another boat's swim platform hit the dock so hard it broke the water line. Consequently, we were without water for a while but never lost our electricity and no one was hurt!
Sunday night the storm waited until 4:00 AM to start. The winds came from the west and had the boat heeling like we were out racing! But they only reached 40 mph this time (piece of cake!) and we did get some much needed rain. Again, after no more than a hour it was gone. Both times we had some thunder and lightning but it was never very close.
On top of all this, the temps have been close to 100 during the day and between 75-80 at night. Thank heavens for AC.
Aren't the ducklings cute? There are 11 of them right now. I'll be adding more pictures of them titled 'ducklings'. How's that for being original. Stay cool and safe.