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August 16, 2008
Oyster Bay, NY
I woke in the morning, made coffee, and checked the weather forecast. My routine. Chis slept. More thunderstorms "capable of producing penny sized hail and damaging winds up to 60 miles per hour". We thought best to stay put. We called the launch for a ride ashore. We wandered through town looking for a grocery store, but none were within walking distance. We returned to the boat, checked the radar and saw nothing threatening. We decided, at the very least, we would fill our fuel tanks at the local marina.
This done, I checked the radar again. Nothing.
We decided to head for Oyster Bay, due south of our Prana's home in Stamford. There wasn't a breath of wind, and a paltry pea soup haze lingering over the whole area. We made our way west, the direction from which the bad weather was coming.
Deep in the distance, night was descending on mid-afternoon. The skies thickened quickly, and the VHF radio began sputtering with hazardous weather warnings. At this point, we were committed. It made no sense to turn back. So we put on our foul weather gear and carried on.
The center of the storm was to the south of us, so we were pretty sure we weren't going to see any serious weather. Then the rains came. Heavy, but not torrential. The lightning show was fantastic, all in the distance. We could hear the thunder, but every strike was several seconds apart. Once again, it appeared that we had avoided the worst of the weather.
We picked up a mooring at Oyster Bay Marine Center, and set to the task of reading. Chis is reading Elizabeth George's latest mystery "Careless in Red". I am finishing David Sedaris' "When You Are Engulfed in Flames".
On our way ashore for dinner at the Mill River Inn, the biggest storm yet hit. We walked from the marina to the restaurant, and just as we arrived, the lightning and thunder were incredible. It just started to rain when we walked through the door of the restaurant, then watched the storm through the window.
It poured rain on our walk back to the marina. But I will say that the launch driver was infinitely better dressed for the weather than we were in our khakis and foul weather jackets.
Posted by dave at August 16, 2008 08:07 PM