Dodging the Storms

For about 8 months, there wasn't one decent rainfall in Morro Bay. Since I bought my sailboat in March, all the way to October, the only form of precipation was fog. There was plenty of fog, plenty of grey. But everything was calm for months. Then the first storm of the season swooped down on us, the unsuspecting prey, and several boats ended up on the mudflats. 50 knot gusts had turned the bay into a wild sea, but luckily my boat was in the Santa Barbara marina. I had taken the train down there on a moment's notice and motored the Raza vessel from her anchorage by the pier to the marina's protected waters.

After the storm wrecked havoc, the sunshine came out. Blissful autumn days, warm and calm, were in full effect. A few weeks later, the morning after I pulled my boat into the Port San Luis Harbor, the second storm hit. It rained like crazy for three days straight and my dinghy got obliterated- but I was able to fix it eventually. The weather reverted back to perfection - hot offshore winds for several weeks, everyone was out in their flip-flops in December. Then the third storm hit.

Nobody had talked about it in the news. It wasn't a big deal. Then LA and Ventura counties got record rainfalls. Hollywood was flooded. It kept raining for over a week, hard driving rain. My boat was absolutely soaked. I stayed a few nights out with it, to make sure the anchor gear was holding, and that my cabin wasn't flooding; but it was holding up fine. However, like an old house, my old boat has all kinds of leaks and eventually it was quite soggy inside. Even my previously "dry safe" areas - the couch, the bed- were getting damp. Thankfully the rain stopped, and I took everything to the laundromat.

The ocean was murky brown from the rivers, dumping the accumulated mud and soot which had finally broken free. 8 inches of rain had flooded the streams, and filled the big lakes. On New Year's Eve the last remains of that storm drizzled down, teasing us with the occasional sunshine. We had 3 days of dry weather. Then I looked at the local newspaper's front page, this week:

"TRIPLE THREAT OF STORMS THIS WEEKEND"

Holy Moly here we go again. This time, no one was complacent about it. Meterological experts analyzed how three different storm systems, the "Pineapple Express" coming from the west, the "Artic Express" from the north, and an unnamed tropical flow coming from south of Mexico, were on a collision course this weekend in California, in what could be the region's "meteorological event of the decade". The TV had images of people buying sandbags to protect their driveways. Radio stations advised trailers and trucks to watch out for high winds. Reports said "Friday morning could see winds rapidly increasing from 20 to 40 knots, with possibility of 60 knot gusts". And more: "Central coast could see another 7 inches of rain on already saturated ground; beware of floods."

How much of this is hype, and how much I should worry, is a fair gamble.