Monday, October 12, 2015

The Perfect Storm

Ooops. I accidentally on purpose skipped a day in the 31 Day Challenge. Here's the deal...I'm not going to blog on Sundays. It's just not my thing. Coincidentally, yesterday's one-word prompt was the word 'rest'.

So I did.

Truthfully I need to rest my blog brain on Sundays. I don't like feeling I have to make time in my Sunday to blog. Sundays are set aside for other things and blogging is a distraction. There are two schools of thought in the blog world, one being don't blog unless you have something to say and the other being blog every single solitary day forever and ever amen.

I've been known to blog when I had nothing to say-ha! And I agree there can be value in blogging every single solitary day because writing is a habit and takes practice. The discipline of the every day is a good thing, but it's too much for me. I think you know I'm all about following the rules, but I'm going to break some here and call this a 27 Day Challenge.

Also, today's prompt is 'storm'.

Yeah, I'm not going there today because it's Monday, and I want to catch up a little on everyday life here. Which is not really stormy unless you count our recent weekend weather.

Hey, did I ever write here about the time we were in The Perfect Storm? Hmmm...maybe I will blog about the word. Did you know I was a fly by the seat of your pants writer?

There's always tomorrow to write about yesterday.

Day 12-storm

Way back in I think the year 2002, we were caught in a storm that all who were present have come to refer to as 'The Perfect Storm.' If perfect means terrifying, then yes that's exactly what it was.

Perfect.
And terrifying.

We were living near Annapolis and we had a boat and had friends with boats and we all spent hours on the water livin' the life. One July weekend, our friends with the big boat suggested we all load up and fly across the Bay for a crab feast. There were three families, six adults and six kids ranging in age from 9-13. Our babies.

When you think you're going to capsize in a wicked thunderstorm on the Bay, 13 is not too old to be called your baby.



The day started out gorgeous with that magical sunlight sparkle on the water and everyone feeling happy and hungry. A crab feast beside the Chesapeake ranks right up there as one of my favorite things in life (sunlight on water might top the list) and our gaggle of girls, plus one boy child who was used to all these girls, climbed aboard the boat and off we went.

When I say fly I'm not exaggerating, because this particular boat can travel at a high rate of speed. That combined with the wind whipping your hair and little girl giggles, sunglasses and friends...well we had all the makings of a glorious July day.

We made it across the Bay and sat outside at one of our favorite spots where we picked crabs and solved all the problems of the world. We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves when we noticed a few clouds beginning to form in the far off distance. Our very good friend (aka the captain) suggested we wrap it up and get ourselves back home, because it looked like the weather was changing.


You always hear storms can come up fast on the water, but man oh man, I've never seen anything like the speed with which the day went from bright clear blue to black as night. We started back and were chugging along at a good pace, when the captain said to his wife...'Get my jacket'.

Ruh-roh.

Apparently she knew when he asked for his jacket it was about to get serious, but we passengers still had every confidence he could outrun it.

Naivete can be a beautiful thing friends.

Our captain instructed us to take the kids below deck and that was when I started to feel a teensy bit anxious. All the guys stayed up top along with the Captain's wife (aka first mate), while the other mom and I corralled the kids down below. We decided it was a good idea to make certain everyone was cinched up tightly in a life jacket.

Pretty sure that's when the tears started. Little girls can be oh so dramatic...I think at one point one of them bemoaned the fact that we were all going to die and she was never going to get married, which is funny but only because we didn't.

And I'm not gonna lie, if we hadn't been the designated adults the other mom and I might have been crying too. The skies that afternoon let loose in a most ferocious manner, a storm to beat all storms. I've never in my life seen lightning strike in such abundance as what was happening all around us. We passed the time trying to decide if we could be electrocuted in fiberglass???

We were fortunate to be in a really solid craft, with a highly capable captain, but even he was fighting to keep the boat moving in the right direction. We were being bounced hither and yon, and at one point our enormous vessel did an actual 180. I think that's when we moms instructed the kids what to do if we had to 'evacuate'.

Now apparently, according to el captain, we were never in any danger of capsizing, but it sure felt like we were. Also I did not throw up, which my family considers one of my greatest triumphs and should be mentioned here.

When we get together with these friends we still love to relive that day in story form. It might get a little bigger in the telling, but honestly it was really huge in the happening. Sometimes when we're with these friends someone will randomly say, 'Hey remember the perfect storm?' and we laugh.  Now we laugh. Then I wasn't really laughing.

Now I know I should use this story as a metaphor but I don't think I will. I'm going to let it stand out there on it's own as a crazy happy memory of our adventures on the Bay and my girls growing up years.


Years we weathered storms together, because we're not made to weather them on our own.

9 comments:

  1. Oh my! I would have been terrified. I can't even imagine. I'm afraid I may have been a lit more dramatic than your kids were.

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  2. The storm sounds really scary. I think it's good to try and blog every day but it can be difficult and I don't think we should let missing a day stress us out. I'm only managing 2 or 3 blogs a week at the moment but that's an improvement.

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  3. Holy guacamole, I would have been crying right along with your girls. Great story, though. Enjoy your week.

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  4. Terrified is a great word for this adventure, and I would definitely have thrown up, being down below and all. If you enjoy writing, you should come on over to my blog on Wednesdays to post a picture and write a story as you have done here. Would love to have you share, and this one is a perfect example. By the way, I've cut back on my "days of the week" as well...just need a bit of breathing room.

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  5. Wow. That's about all I can say about that storm story. Wow.

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  6. Nothing scares the bleep out of me like being near water when there's lightning! Except being in that place with my babies!! I would have been crying and the kids trying to calm me down. I shouldn't have read this right before bed!!

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  7. A truly crazy experience and story, but I have to see that last line is brilliant. I may have to borrow it when the seas of my life get rough! Thank you.

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  8. I love your stories about the bay. I grew up on the Eastern Shore and crab feasts were a staple at every holiday cookout. So you give me a taste of home and a bit of nostalgia. As for the storm, I'm glad it all worked out in the end, as scary as it was at the time. I remember watching many a storm approach across the farms.

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  9. Great story and it's great for everyone to be around to tell it. Being in the wrong in a bad storm is terrifying. Good that panic didn't take over because that just makes bad go to worse.

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