Captain Ahab: The sun will come out tomorrow!

Club News | February 21st, 2016 | No comments yet

Posted by: Website Admin

sun-out
I am getting a wee bit fed up with the all the rain and leaden skies.
Every day we get up to more winds, rain and storm warnings. It really is getting quite depressing.
I yearn for blue skies and a crisp, cold, snow bearing north wind roaring in from Siberia and the Arctic.
Is this what they call Global Warming?

And has anyone else noticed but it is only since we started to give names to our storms that we have had so many.
And I would also like to point out that we have not had Storm Ahab. Yet.
However with this weather Boaters people are actually very well prepared. Better than the rest of the population.
And this is brilliant given our proximity to rivers that flood.

I don’t know about anyone else but when I now go out to my local Waitrose, Tesco or Lidl (other supermarket brands are available) I never venture out unless clad in full Oilies and sailing boots. I would observe that few others are as well equipped.I have even been known to add my lifejacket to this ensemble when theweather has been particularly severe. It might get funny looks from other shoppers but you can never be too careful these days and I am sure the RNLI and the Marine Coastguard Agency would approve.

Better safe than sorry, as many a Boaters Skipper has said to me, as we put in all three reefs in anticipation of the breeze stiffening from Force 2 to Force 3 the day after tomorrow.
But I must admit it is not easy squeezing into and driving a car in full wet weather gear and lifejacket.

But I am now going further.

Given the worsening and continuing bad weather I have started giving a full safety briefing to the assembled household whenever weather warnings issued. For any place in the country.
I want all risks minimised should we be venturing out. Everyone to know their role in the event that something might go awry.
It is now standard practice to be clipped on to jackstays that have been fitted when moving from house to car. Especially at night.
And lifelines must be worn at all times when driving in any wet weather that has been baptized and named.
Some of you may think that this is going too far but it is what we would do when on board and these days the edges between H2O and terra firma are becoming decidedly blurred.

I am taking no chances.

And this weekend I have organised a man overboard drill in the garden in the event that anyone coming to the house might stumble off the path to the house and end up in the watery lawn.
Just turn up if you feel you need to practice.

We might even run a Boaters Sea Survival Course where once there was my lawn. Tell me if interested.
Let’s just hope that the need for such precautions might come to an end soon.
And hope too that, in the words of ‘Annie’, the sun will come out tomorrow.
Before my feet become webbed.

Captain Ahab

 

 

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