Today was going to be a “down” day in port. The weather, Tropical Storm Colin, will be keeping us in Stuart for a couple of days so we are just taking it easy. Our boat is pretty protected on an inside dock closer in to shore. We should be protected from the southeast winds that are expected with the storm.
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When we took Auggie for his morning walk, Bob found a 2×6 board laying in the grass that he could use for a fender board. It’s a long board that keeps the fenders positioned against the boat in such a way so that they don’t move around in the wind and waves. The fenders protect the boat from getting damaged at the dock. The board even had holes drilled in it like it was already made for this purpose. What luck!
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While Bob worked on setting that up, I decided to do some wash in the boater’s laundry. It was early and no one was using the machines. When Bob finished he came to find me and we went upstairs to the boater’s lounge to check it out. From the second floor you can see out over the marina. It has quite a nice view……and free popcorn! We thought we might come back later and watch the storm from up there. It would provide a great vantage point to see everything.
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After lunch, Bob worked on checking the lines and securing the boat at the dock. I took Auggie for a walk over to the park where I found this cute little restaurant, The Pelican Cafe. We’ll have to check it out while we’re here.
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On our walk, Auggie discovered these tan geckos. They are much bigger than the ones at home (about 5″ long and 1″ wide) and he tried really hard to chase them down. No luck!
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We kept checking the weather forecasts from back home. Our neighbors were posting videos on Facebook to show what the rain and wind were doing in our canals. According to the radar, the winds were blowing the water into Tampa Bay and the water was rising up over our seawalls. The worst was yet to come with the high tide at 2 PM. I’m sure we will be getting water up into the yard. The question is just how much? We watched the radar and tried to predict when the storm would finally come to the East Coast. At 4:30, it finally arrived with rain bands that came in waves.
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The squall lines were strong, but they didn’t last long. This poor lady was having a heck of a time walking back to her boat with her umbrella. It was absolutely no use to her whatsoever. Poor thing!
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Auggie got his walk in-between the rain bands and then we settled in for the night. What would tomorrow’s weather bring?