Southport, North Carolina
We chose to passage again on Mothers Day. The weather had been very settled for a long time. Admittedly, the forecast for Mothers Day did show a chance of rain and thunderstorms, but the forecasted prevailing winds and sea state were within our comfort zone.
We hauled up our anchor and left Calabash Creek shortly after 8am and headed "outside." We left under blue skies, but once out on the ocean we could see the cloud front in the distance. It wasn't so distant! Within the hour, it was pouring. Visibility was zero. We did get our cockpit enclosure up and it kept us fairly (not totally) dry. The wind gusts were strong. We took in almost all of our sails - just left out a handkerchief of the main sail - and we were still flying. Then, lightning! OMGoodness. We were right under the storm clouds; it's the closest we've ever been to an electrical storm... we could see the lightning hitting the water around us. I like a little excitement, but this was too much drama. The storm front eventually passed over us, but we were riding under it for 1-2 hours. Made good speed though.
We must be getting a bit too cauky or over confident or stupid, to have gone out with the possibility of thunderstorms in the forecast. We've always stayed safe by being respectful of the weather. What if lightning struck us? It could have happened, but we were lucky.
Anyway, we continued on our way, as we had beautiful blue skies above us again.
Our plan for this day was to come back on the "inside" at the Cape Fear River Inlet, and if we arrived there on the incoming tide, we would ride it. If the tide was outgoing, we would anchor and wait, rather than fight it.
Just as we arrive at the Cape Fear River Inlet, the Coast Guard issues a Severe Weather Alert for that area. Thunderstorms with wind gusts up to 50 expected; small boats should come into port. We honestly wondered if we heard that right. We didn't see anything nasty coming. As it happened we hit the incoming tide too and we so wanted to ride it. We didn't want to come into port. Dang. Reason prevailed, however; fate should not be tempted twice in one day, and the morning's lesson was to remember to always respect the weather. We headed for Southport's small harbour and got our anchor hooked.
Were we glad we heeded the Coast Guard's Weather Alert. We weren't there 5 minutes before the rain started, and it poured just as it did in the morning. Then the winds came, and they were strong. Strong enough that Serenada dragged on her anchor. We had to power up to keep from dragging into the boats at dock. Fortunately this blow was shorter than the morning's.
What a day. A Mothers Day not soon forgotten!
it could have been worse
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