Big storm & training

One of the exciting things we experienced in Bellevue was our first severe weather.  The storm was reported to be heading into our county with hail and 70 mph winds.  I felt a little reassured since we were only about 30' west of the 50' embankment, so I thought the embankment would help shield us from the wind.  As I stood on the deck of the boat, I could hear the wind coming across the bluffs.  It was about 9:00 at night, so I could only see when the lightning lit the sky. Once the wind hit, I grabbed Wicket & she & I snuggled below while Bob braced himself on deck.  Bob was prepared to start the engine and steer the boat away from shore should the wind pull up our anchor, but we were anchored very securely and held tight. The wind blew the boat at a 45 degree angle many times, back and forth.  We could hear things being tossed around on the foredeck, so I assumed we lost sailbags, diesel jugs, fishing poles, etc. but we haven't discovered anything missing so far.  The storm lasted about 15 minutes and then we enjoyed the light show courtesy the lightning.

Below I am learning to start the engine on the dinghy and drive it, so that if emergency calls, I will be able to get somewhere for help or whatever.  So now we have a real dinghy driver driving the dinghy.  LOL.