Rough Rough

No I'm not doing my imitation of a dog. That describes last night here in HopeTown.

This cold front we had come across yesterday was supposed to be of only moderate conditions but it turned out to be the most vigorous one of the season. The forecast was for winds 15 - 25 kts with gusts to 30. It actually ran 30 - 35 with gusts near 50.

That much wind really makes the boat motion uncomfortable. The boat will yawl sideways one way then the other and then sometimes rocks side to side. You have to have one hand on the boat at all times to stay steady when moving about.

You might think that the conditions would make sleeping difficult but no, you can sleep okay, it is the anxiety of thinking your boat might break loose from a mooring and crash about other boats or another boat might come loose that makes sleeping difficult.

Fortunately no boats came loose -- oh did I say this started around 5pm and lasted till 3am. Naturally during the dark of the night.

After so many hours you really get tired of the wind noise and motion. We got lucky in that sometime between 2:30am (I was up checking radar and the average wind speed was 33 kts) and 3:30am the wind just died. It became flat calm! Still is at 9am this morning.

Won't last though. It's supposed to run 15 to 20 most of today which really is not bad. It's when it gets above 20 that it becomes rough rough.