June 3, 2012 - Hampton, VA

A few people suggested we should set up a blog to chronicle our boat adventures for the next five months.  I thought about it but then thought - "how interesting is this, anyway?"  - wake up, exercise, do some email, maybe a little work, read, blah blah blah, have a beer, blah blah blah.   Repeat. 

Well, tonight was different!  It had been storming for awhile while we blissfully (excuse the use of your names) were fooling around on our laptops - until it got pretty dark, pretty windy, and generally felt intense outside.  So I walked outside, up to the flybridge, looked on the horizon and said, "Debi - what is that?" just looking for confirmation.  Because it sure LOOKED liked a tornado and it was heading this way.  Within two seconds of her looking at it, the bottom of the funnel lit up with electric flashes like they do when power lines are blowing up.  OK - I'll take that as confirmation.  

What to do?  Make a 3 minute run to the bar through the storm - and get soaked trying to beat it there.  Or hunker down in the bottom of the boat?  That seemed wiser until I remembered the video of the Dallas tornado throwing those semi trucks up into the air.  I thought if they can take semis, they can probably take us.  I've got to tell you, that's a weird thought to have - thinking about the boat you are sitting on, your only realistic shelter, flying through the air like a marine version of Wizard of Oz.

While contemplating this, the funnel disappeared.  I noticed the wind had changed 180 degrees.  And two minutes later, it changed back 180 degrees, so clearly  both sides of the storm passed over us.  When the rain was gone, we headed to the bar to see if we could learn more.  Of course, everyone at the bar was.....drinking..... and not paying the least attention to what was going on outside.  But the Weather Channel was on and showed that the tornado had dissipated while it went over our heads, only to re-form on the other side of us, heading out on the Bay.   Sort of what happened at our lake house last year.  Is this bad luck or good luck?  Both, I guess.

Anyway, I wanted to get this out to you now, because for the last half hour, they've been showing our Hampton tornado on the Weather Channel.  I expect they'll still be showing it tomorrow, maybe on CNN as well, I would guess.  Apparently, there was some substantial damage downtown (Hampton).  Have not heard about injuries yet. 

 So tune in for another EMSTAR adventure!