20090726: quite a storm

20090726
we had a wonderful, shortish sail today, from our anchorage in mobjack bay to the historic york river (we barely got to know the place, because we got there after dark yesterday, and are off this morning). 
we took a shortcut through a very narrow channel through some very shallow waters. it's amazing out here in the chesapeake how far out from land you are, and how shallow it can be! pam did an excellent job of navigating us through the channel. there were moments when we were very close to grounding (6 feet), but we never did ground cricket. the little channel saved us at least 6 miles.
on our way up the york river to yorktown we got some mighty winds which helped us to break some cricket speed records! we had a steady 6-7 knots, and at one time hit 7.8! flying! although it was plenty windy, it was plenty hot to boot. felt lie standing in front of one of those turbo hand dryers for prolonged periods.
when we arrived in sarah creek, just across the river from yorktown, we had quite a time navigating the little creek. lots of shallows. we may have run aground one little time. we arrived at a spot where it seemed like it was anchorable, but the first try put us too close to a 5 foot area, and what seemed like right in the middle of the channel. pulled anchor. second try seemed a little better, but right then...
wham! a huge thunderstorm caught us before we could even try to set the anchor. lots and lots of lightning strikes all around us, the a deluge of rain, then it got colder, then came the hail, then the huge winds! we dragged our anchor right into a shallow area (luckly not into someone elses dock or something). the wind was so strong that it nearly put us on our side! oh my! fortunately we'de made it into a harbour, and had just enough time to batten down the hatches. huge winds blowing us through the shallow mud, rain coming down in sheeets, lightning striking all around us. quite a time... two waves of that. then we pulled anchor again (it took some doing, as the anchor was set in a shallow area we didn't want to get further into. dropped anchor again (all the time watching another wave of the storm getting nearer and nearer). we tried to set the anchor again, but she dragged again! argh! pulled it up once again (our anchor is brought up by a manual winch and our own strength). this particular part of sarah creek just wasn't working out, so it was navigate once again through the shallows, and find a new place. we did, al the while with another wave of the storm coming. we found another likely place, dropped the hook, and then came another wave of the storm. seemed to hold for a while, but then dragged for a bit. i ran to the controls and motored for a little to allow the anchor to settle a bit. it seemed to, and we watched lots and lots of rain for a good long time. thankfully, the wind didn't seem to blow nearly as strongly this time. whew! that was a lot of work! but it is amazing how well we were taken care of through it all! God is good!
weird having a day when you feel like you're in a convection oven, and then are shivering from the cold rain! weird, but good when you sit down to some warm tomato soup, and think about how much grace was in the day!