Labor Day Weekend

Boating plans are subject to change…when the weather changes, plans change. The forecast for Labor Day weekend sounded great…in reality it was wet and windy.

We had family staying at Magnolia Beach so we planned on taking the boat down, spending the day and then anchoring out near Sand Point for the night. That was the plan. Mother Nature had plans of her own. The day started out beautiful and we headed to Magnolia Beach around noon.  It was a nice run down the channel, sunshine, birds, boats and dolphins. We anchored off shore and kayaked in to enjoy time with family.

We played in the water, visited with family, started dinner…and then the sky turned dark and the wind picked up. By the time we headed back to the boat the wind and waves were too strong for me to make it out that far. I had to turn back; luckily Stan made it to the boat. The winds were somewhere around 40-45 MPH, the bay was very rough and the rain came down hard. Stan was able to get the motor started and keep her from washing ashore, but he wasn’t able to get the anchor up until he moved further out in the bay. All he could do in the beginning was drag the anchor and try to keep the line out of the prop. All I could do was watch from shore and wish I were on board to help out.

Once Stan had the chance to pull up the anchor he headed back to the marina. Kenneth took me back to town so I could meet the boat and Eric came down to help with whatever we might need. Our boat did well in the storm and everything came through great…a good learning experience.  (I could truly do without this type of learning experience.)

When the boat was squared away and safely tied into her slip we went back to the beach for dinner. Not the relaxing evening we had planned…but plans change when you are on a boat.

Early Afternoon...beautiful weather

Before the storm....wish I had a picture during the storm!

Sunday was still very windy and the bay was very rough so we took the car to the beach.  We had enough boating excitement on Saturday.  Magnolia Beach doesn't usually have waves rolling ashore.  The wind made it very hard to enjoy any outside activities for the grown ups, but the kids loved the waves.  Monday it rained all day so we stayed home and enjoyed watching TV and reading.