We are catching a break from Mother Nature this weekend. A backdoor front has crossed the state bringing cooler weather and a little cloudiness and some isolated rain showers.
The high temperature forecast for today is 88 degrees and the high yesterday in my front yard was 86. After a couple of weeks of highs in the upper 90s and an excursion or two into the triple digits, I am really diggin’ it. It even got down into the upper 60s last night.
We are also enjoying the lower humidity, 53% as I sit here writing this. And the feel good weather trifecta is complete with a nice little summer breeze between 5 and 10 mph from the east, courtesy of a tropical low off the coast. Ahhh – yes, life is good.
Mind you, I know better than to complain about the weather, especially here in South Carolina, as they say down here, if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. Case in point; yesterday afternoon, I was just about to head out on a run to the grocery store when a little pop up rain shower drenched my plans. Fortunately it did not drench the pups that were enjoying the cool afternoon in the back yard. They made it to their dog houses just before I got to the back door to let them in. Whew, another bullet dodged; the smell of wet dogs on a summer afternoon.
There was an accompanying clap of thunder or two but not as bad as they had it down in Charleston where two cells came together and really threatened boaters on the water in the harbor. Those Facebook videos were brutal.
A group of San Juan 21's vying for position at a racing mark. That reminds me of one of my favorite “war stories” about sailing on Lake Murray. I had a full load on my San Juan 21 sailboat that included two US Navy Midshipmen and their families. All in all, five adults and three kids, just about the limit for a San Juan and the supply of lifejackets that I had on board. We sailed out of the Lake Murray Sailing Club in a light breeze similar to today. The water was generally calm with just a few ripples of 3 – 5 inches being whipped up by the zephyr. We were headed south towards Spence Islands under partly cloudy skies with no buildups to the north and west where our storms typically come from. I was sharing the things that sailors do to be safe on the water, always be aware of where you are on the lake, where the other boaters are and what is happening with the weather.
One of the wives, asked me about a cloud building up south of the lake near the town of Lexington. I said, that if that cloud was northwest of us, that would be one I would have an eye on. We were thinking of lowering the sails so the kids could jump into the lake for a little swim, when I took a second look at that cloud. It had only been a minute or two since I last looked at it. But in that time it had grown from a little storm with cloud tops about 20,000 feet to a monster storm with tops well over 40,000 feet. Right at that moment, a wind shear hit us and the wind direction switched from the Northwest to the south.
It was clear that the storm, while 20 miles away had cast a gust front that had just crossed over us. Not only that, but that storm was not moving to the southeast like the rest of the weather, but directly north, straight at us. I estimated that with the assistance of the old Sears Gamefisher 5 outboard motor on the transom that we were about 20 minutes from the dock at the sail club. I also estimated the storm would reach us in about 25 minutes. So we made a quick 180 degree turn and I threw the large Genoa sail on the front of the boat out on the “whisker pole”, started the outboard and revved it up to full speed. We were just going to make it. That was a good thing because I had a 25 ft 8 inch aluminum lightning rod with two big sails attached sitting on top of the cabin of that boat.
It really wasn’t the fault of that little outboard motor. It was old and used infrequently, after all it is was on a sailboat and it was a matter of honor to get where you want to go on a sailboat using wind power only. We were approaching the “little cove” and could almost see the sailing club around the bend of the shoreline when I heard it. It was just a little “tink” but it was a fateful one. The shear pin on the prop chose the moment I needed it the most to give up the ghost. I heard the Gamefisher roar as it was released from the load of the prop. The sailboat settled back from nearly being on the plane, to a slightly bow down configuration of a boat being driven by stern winds.
This was not good! Instead of beating the storm to the club by five minutes it was now going to get to us about five minutes before we could get there keeping to the channel that was deep enough for our keel.
To make a long story short, we lowered the sails, raised the swing keel and took a short cut to the club across the shoals at Pole Key. We were powered by the two active Midshipmen and the old Navy guy who’s Midshipmen days were 20 years in the past swimming for our lives at the end of ropes attached to the bow. We made it to the point on the sail club property where we solidly beached the boat right there and got everyone off and up to the club house just as the storm hit.
There was cloud to ground lightning everywhere around but somehow the aluminum mast was not struck. I know because I watched it during the entire storm. I never even attempted to repair that broken shear pin on that 25 year old Gamefisher outboard. It was time for a well deserved retirement. The next week, the San Juan was back out for the races sporting a brand new Yamaha outboard. It was still on the transom when I sold the San Juan 20 years later. I believe the new owner replaced it shortly after he bought it. What goes around, comes around. Oh MY!
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