Saturday, March 23, 2013

Blondie in the Bay - An Adventure After the Hurricane

Blondie in the Bay 


I have a pitiful sight in my garage. I own 3 sea kayaks and a 20 foot canoe and they've done nothing but collect dust in my garage since we moved to dirtville.

Every once in awhile I'll stare longingly at them remembering their glory days when we lived near the beach. At least once a week I'd strap wheels to the back of 'fast and tippy' or 'slow and steady' and pull it down the street to the bay or the ocean for a couple of hours of kayaking. 


Fast and Tippy with wheels.
One of my favorite adventures was a lovely fall day a few days after a hurricane paid us a visit. The storm was a category two hurricane (read 96-110 mph winds) and the damage to the area was extensive. Many homes were flooded, trees were down, and there was major damage to the infrastructure along the shore with entire tracts of power lines down for miles. I was itching to see how everything had fared, having been cut off from anything but the radio since the storm hit.

Storm eating up the sky.

I was also tired of being in the dark, hot house with no power. At least outside there was a semblance of a breeze even if the sun was blaring down on me. A short walk through the tree-lined neighborhood and I launched the sea kayak into the warm water of the back bay with blue herons and osprey flying overhead and the water sparkling brightly all around.


My playground for the day.

A considerable amount of debris left by the storm was in my usual launching place so I had to improvise. Luckily I was wearing my water shoes and didn't mind stepping on some rather questionable sea ick. The water felt delicious on my legs and I settled into 'fast and tippy' its light green color reflecting brightly in the sun. I launched myself using the paddle and began exploring the bay. 



I felt secure in my knowledge that the water was shallow and the sharks were more fond of the oceanfront as I paddled along, glad that 'fast and tippy' was making my journey a bit easier. 'Slow and steady' was well suited for the oceanfront with the constant waves and the treacherous breaker crossings. Thankfully, I was oblivious the great white shark that was tracked in that area a few years later. 


Glad I didn't know a great white shark made regular visit to the bay. 






The bay was lined with luxury homes of the disgustingly rich. I was most definitely not rich (see Blondie at the Beach) and enjoyed ogling their toys. It was nice to know these rich people were suffering along with us regular folk with no power, broken houses, and major damage. Not that I had anything against them. Merely that the hurricane didn't just pick on us. 

Tooling along in the bay gave me the inside scoop on many of these houses. From the road it was hard to see how they lived in the lap of luxury. From the     bay their backyards were completely visible, fancy yachts and all. Only now    

    there were trees on top of houses and yachts, and in some cases yachts on top     of trees. 


Lawn yacht anyone?

Contractors were hard at work pumping out the water or removing fallen branches and trees from their otherwise beautifully manicured lawns. One huge brick house in particular caught my attention. A huge lob lolly pine fell through the roof and another fallen tree had cracked the seawall. It looked like they had another few trees down in the front lawn as well, although it was hard to see from my vantage point in the kayak. There had to be water inside the house given the severity of the roof damage. 



Trees were down everywhere.

Seeing the devastation around me made me realize how lucky we were. Our house had made it through the storm with no damage or flooding. The seawall at the oceanfront was responsible for the lack of flooding and just been completed a few months before the hurricane. The storm surge brought the wave just to the brink of the wall, and had it not been there would have brought the ocean directly to our front yard two blocks away since it was all downhill. Our house was a single story ranch surrounded by two and three story homes leaving us in a pocket of safety from the damaging 100 mile an hour winds.

An hour of exploring and my bottle of water was nearly gone. Rather ironic that I was surrounded by hundreds of homes with seven or more bathrooms and none available to me. I was left with few options. A very lovely winding path in long sea grass was a perfect unseen place. The footing is rather difficult back there, not to mention the various crabs, fish and creepy crawlies that may take advantage of me in my moment of relief. 


Please Mr. Crab, please don't pinch me!


I eased my legs over the side of the kayak but it took me awhile to muster the courage to lower myself into the murky water, with all the imagined horrible biting critters unseen below the surface. Luckily I had lifeguard ninja skills as a quick draw McGraw and was back in the kayak all bits accounted for in no time.

I miraculously managed to get back into 'fast and tippy' without losing the paddle, my sunglasses, or my water and continued on my journey. By hour three I decided to head back home to see if the power was back on. A hot shower and air conditioning would be a great end to this day.

As it turned out power was not restored for another week and a half to our area near the beach and even longer for some lower lying areas. Our street happened to be one of the higher elevations in the entire area leaving us with less water damage from the torrential rains. The soggier areas had a lot more damage as a result of the loosened roots creating more fallen trees.

Returning to my small, inexpensive, yet undamaged house I definitely appreciated my lot in life. Our house made it through the storm with no damage at all and after what I'd seen that day it seemed like a miracle.

Although I didn't live in the lap of luxury like many of my neighbors, I still was able to enjoy the gorgeous bay and the sandy beach. More importantly I had the love of my family and friends and no amount of money could buy that. Life isn't about how much you have but how much you enjoy what you are given. I definitely have a full appreciation of all the good things in my life, even if I am living it in dirtville now. 

Connect With Me

When I'm not working on Stealing Time you can find me on my social media at the links below. I hope to have my novel completed by spring 2014 with book two close behind.

14 comments:

  1. I love it makes me want 2 go out on canone and kayak right I live right by the sea so I knw what when u say a relaxing afternoon so peace great blog :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are so lucky to live by the sea! Thank you for reading my blog! Hopefully you can enjoy the water when it warms up a bit. Take some pics and share!

      Delete
  2. Gosh!! What excitment! Your life is so completely different to mine over here in freezing cold UK. It's all so blue and sea-y! Amazing pics of shark and crab! Sorry about the hurricane - guesss that's the price you pay for living by the sea where you do.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carol thanks for stopping by my blog! Yes, it's a bit different over here but I'm in dirtville now and wishing I was back by the sea. You're right about the price to pay being near the sea. I've been in 15 or more tropical storms and hurricane in my life. One bonus about dirtville though, as there is no decent body of water in 100's of miles there are no hurricanes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading it. You painted nice imagery with your words and the photos were icing on the cake. ;o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, thank you so much Kristin! Really appreciate you stopping by! Made my whole day by leaving such a nice comment. :D

      Delete
  5. I enjoyed your description of the hurricane's aftermath as seen from the water. After living in south Florida for 18 years, I weathered my share of hurricanes--something I don't miss after moving to the Pacific Northwest. I could definitely relate to the devastation you witnessed. I'm looking forward to STEALING TIME.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for checking it out Sandy! Really appreciate you leaving a comment! Living in South Florida you had your share of storms! You were very lucky to live there even with all the storms. And now you're in Pacific North west. Jealous! I'm in dirtville now and missing trees and the ocean!

      Delete
  6. Makes me glad I never was in a hurricane, but it sounds exciting

    ReplyDelete
  7. I kayak, too, but in the fresh waters of NH when we go back to my stomping grounds each summer. We don't have to worry about sharks there, but there are the fish that like to nibble on toes, especially if they are painted all pretty and sparkly, like lures..... Keep writing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah icy cold New Hampshire and not fun to dunk in the drink! Love kayaking! I've done a canoe trip from New Hampshire to Maine. Was so beautiful! Thanks for stopping by Shaunda! Great to see you over here!

      Delete
  8. One of your best! Living in a middling sort of place like England I have a fascination for extreme weather conditions - having the luxury of never having to experience them, of course!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thanks so much Terry for taking the time to read it! So appreciate you saying that! :D I'm a huge weather fan, as you know and fun to relive those moments. Esp when it's passed and you've survived without too much damage. Not so fun during when you think you're a goner!

      Delete
  9. Loved this post, anything to do with the sea is OK by me... must be wonderful...

    ReplyDelete