Yawn

Hurricanes are tricky things.  In 2004, Category 4 Hurricane Charlie was headed straight for our house in Clearwater when it took an easterly turn overnight.  It decimated a surprised Punta Gorda with its strong northeast quadrant, and the weaker western side barely gave us rain.

A similar thing happened today in Marathon.  The storm went east of the forecasted track and we got the western side, which was pretty much non-existent.  It was overcast and drizzled once in the morning, then the rest of the day was sunny and calm. 

I won’t attempt to hide that it was a bit of a letdown.  It’s not that I’m an adrenaline junkie or something.  I make these plans and have these ideas about what conditions will be like and how we’ll cope with them, but at this point they remain untested.  A boxer has to work his way up the ranks gaining experience before he has a chance against the champ.  I only hope that next time I’m not pitted against a much stronger storm.

I partially console myself with the knowledge that I could tell what was happening as soon as I got up this morning and saw the breeze had backed to the North.  I’ve watched these things closely for many years now, have read some books, taken some classes, and feel like I’m getting to understand them to some degree.

If I were reliant on official sources of information, I would have been totally clueless about what was currently happening or about to happen.  The VHF chatter from other boats showed a serious lack of awareness about what the weather was doing.  Local weather radar was the only information I had access to (which was only possible because I had Internet access) which was compatible with what I was seeing with my eyes.  In fact, several of the National Hurricane Center’s position reports appeared to contradict what I saw clearly on radar.  I find it frustrating that even within hours of a storm hitting me, I can’t get good information about what kind of weather I’ll have.  Part of it is a prediction problem, but part is also an information delivery problem.

We received several calls and emails today from friends and family inquiring about how we’re faring in the storm.  All were surprised to learn that it was just another day in paradise.