TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Maclin

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May 27, 2007
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... or maybe "Here's your Sign..." or even "You MIGHT be an idiot if...." :facepalm:

I had not been able to get out this season until Saturday (Oct 12). We moved her parents in with us this Summer, and that chewed up vacation and also lots of weekend opportunities, but that was OK. I did get some engine and other systems maintenance and some upholstery fixes worked in. I had been getting more and more anxious to test all the work in a shakedown cruise. Especially now that "winterizing" season is approaching, I really wanted some validation of the work done before putting the boat up for Winter.

Saturday was going to be the day. I usually have help launching and retrieving but this was going to be a solo day. The weather had rain and thunderstorms in the forecast, and I had been watching the hourly forecast and Radar and calculated a 3 hour Window that I deemed safe enough. Then I had a spousal scheduling conflict and got a 2 hour late start but one last look at the radar gave me confidence to go ahead.

I usually get out 3 or 4 or 5 times a year, and get a story or two per outing, sometimes just plain old good times with no real incidents. But evidently Fate has 4 or five stories in the wings for me per season, so even if I only go out once these pent-up incidents will become manifest all within the one outing.

I drove to the boat storage and began uncovering and prepping for the road. It is about a 16 mile one way trip due north to the ramp, lake is Lake Ray Roberts in Texas just east of Sanger. The clouds began to darken over my head and on to the north but I knew any rain or storms would be widely scattered and moving to the East Northeast so I took off for the lake.

It was dry for several miles then I got rained on. At one point just up ahead I saw what I could only identify as a water spout, but not the very top or bottom, the color is what made me think water spout. At first observation it would have been about 4 miles ahead. I was on a narrow 2 lane hiway with no shoulders and little opportunity to turn around. There was a pickup truck behind me and I had no way of knowing if they saw the Spout or how they would react if I stopped suddenly and tried to turn around.

The Spout dissipated from my view, then I hit some hard rain, short duration. By the time I got to the Marina the rain had passed and I could see the thunderstorm clouds about 5 miles away just clearing the other side of the lake.

I planned to use the private ramp at the Marina, so I went into the Marina store. The attendant was pretty wound up and said that they had just had some hail and a tornado had touched down just South of them, which is exactly where I saw the Spout, confirming my sighting in no uncertain terms. He tried to talk me out of the ramp ticket, but I had checked back in at home with the spouse and she said it had all moved on so I "Endeavored to Persevere" (Chief Dan George from the Jody Wales story).

I waited about another 20 minutes just to be sure, and the skies were patchy cloudy and not threatening. I went on to the ramp. I knew the lake was almost 7 feet low but the Marina private ramp was steeper than normal so figure launching would be ok. I should have looked it over first before buying the ticket though. The ramp was ok as far as water level, but the end of that dock was almost lying on the bottom and I would not be able to get the boat to the dock at all, so solo launch/retrieve was not going to work and very sadly I decided to pass and began to head out for home.

I had only used the Marina private ramp on this lake even though there was a State Park ramp right in that same area. I paused at the Marina exit, and thought heck let's take a look at the State Park ramp while I am right there and "Endeavor to Persevere".

I was impressed with what I saw at the Park. The ramp area was wide with 6 lanes and two long piers that 4 of the lanes were adjacent to. I knew I could solo there very well using a ramp that was right by one of the piers. It was not busy at all either, so this was looking more and more like a Go situtation.

I talked to a guy retrieving a Pontoon, had nice chat. He had been caught in the Storm and was glad to be there in one piece, almost sorry he went out but had a good time with his kids until they had to beach and experience the storm.

I "Endeavored to Persevere" and drove my rig to to the staging and backing area. A couple of guys were just starting to prep their nice aluminum fishing rig, so I went over and chatted some. The wind had come up some, probably 20mph, and they as well as I were questioning our sanity at this point. I have a 22 foot Cuddy, and it does ok in chop but still can be an uncomfortable ride. One of the guys was visiting his buddy, and mentioned he had a boat back home more like mine. He knew the powertrain and it became obvious he was an experienced boater. We had a good chat and I decided to "Endeavor to Persevere" and go ahead and launch.

Got it backed in with trailer right beside the ramp. I did not have a spring line or anything, figuring to just start it up and idle on back and tie off to the dock. I underestimated what the wind had in mind though, as it was blowing across the dock then blowing my stern away before I could get out of the pilot seat and back there to tie off. I tried several times to power over there, then the guy I chatted with hollered and asked if I wanted him to park my rig. I hollered back YES!!! and THANKS!!!!

At this point the best thing to do was back out and get the bow around as soon as possible. When backing the water was splashing against the stern and spraying me in the back some. I got the bow around and waved and took off.

No need to honor the short No Wake zone as no one was around and Mother Nature was certainly not observing it, and any wake would not have been noticed in the chop that was coming in, so I motored up.

I had left my billfold and cellphone in the truck, had planned to bring the cellphone on board in case of problems, but that plan went away. I thought, Ok Maclin, this is a test of your faith in your mechanical abilities (and in the trustworthiness of Mankind!). I headed out to open lake.

I opened it up and got to 35 and cruised and took some bearings. It was choppy, some whitecaps. I went on up to 40 and began to trim up, and it began to navigate the chop head on in good fashion. I went on up to 45 and added a little more up trim and it was just skipping over the chop very nicely, though would get a jarring every so often.

As I got closer to the Dam the chop was not as bad, So I went WOT and played with the trim, and got to 47 which was almost the best ever of 48 in glass, cool. The recent tuneup was good then, got about another 100 rpm than before. I was having a blast!

I stayed on the leeward side of the lake and had a good cruise. I did hit 49-50 with the wind, a new wind-aided record for this boat with these (lower pitched) props. I have been past 50 in a past season with a higher-pitched set but went with lower pitch for easier low constant speed towing.

I stayed out and used up about 1/8th tank of fuel and headed back in. I cruised at 45 or so in the "following seas", the boat handled very well. All in all a very satisfactory shakedown.

Docking was another adventure. Due to lower lake levels I needed to dock on the same side that the wind would blow me away from. I knew I could get alongside the dock and thought I would have enough time to get up and grab the dock railing. The side windshield keeps me from just reaching over so I need to get up and head astern to do this. Well my non-spryness as a 59 year-old boy was a factor and I missed, so the boat began to drift towards the ramp sideways. I shut it down and raised the drive, then climbed out onto the swim platform then down the ladder into the water. I grabbed the rope tied to the stern cleat, rocked it some to get it floated again and drug it to the dock. I was able to grab the rail and get back up on the platform then into the boat and pulled it back some more and tied it down astern, then tied the bow cleat. No big deal, water temp was ok, so not much impact, just got my shorts wetter and higher up than I wanted to.

At this point I thought, heck, I can get the trailer almost under the boat with this ramp & pier setup, so I back it in and got out, ran out the winch strap and hooked it up. I winched until the stern rope was tight then went back and untied there, left the bow rope tied but loose, and began winching. The boat centered nicely and the wind drove it on up the trailer some, so most of the winching was easy. Once the winch strap "caught up" to there the boat was I untied the bow.

As I was winching, standing in about a foot of water I noticed a bolt of lightning out of the corner of my left eye just off to the east. When I looked I saw that it appeared to be coming out of a small puffy white cloud with no dark bottom at all, so I thought it must have been farther away and not from that cloud. I did not even have time to finish that thought when the thunderclap reached me. YIKES that was loud. And CLOSE. My shorts were even wetter now as I began winching in earnest!

No more issues (or lightning!) as I winched it up, then drove it up to the top of the ramp. I stopped and did the Zebra Mussel Shuffle by draining the bilge and lowering and draining remaining inbound and exhaust water as posted regs required.

I raised the drive then drove out then finished strapping down for the trip home. I began to write a note to the guys that helped me launch, then saw they were coming in. I waited to thank them in person. The guy who parked my rig hid the billfold and cellphone and keys all just where I was going to, very nice and I wanted to be sure he knew that it was appreciated greatly.

The trip home was unventful and dry until I got back into town. It had rained some more there I guess, and I slid thru a 4way stop. The street surface was incredibly slick, all 4 wheels were anti-locking, and it was not that sudden of a stop. The trailer has surge brakes and I am sure they were trying to engage, but if the truck can't stop then the surge unit has nothing to push against to generate pressure in the wheel cylinders so it just helped push me on thru. I stopped just short of the other side of the intersection. There were 2 cars coming up to the stop on my left while I was already sliding so they had a pretty good show and I was glad no one was in the way. I had to go into 4wd to get going again (I only needed 2wd at the ramp!), that surface was slick beyond just normal wet, not sure what was going on there.

No more issues, got it tucked away in storage, might go out one more time next weekend.

I was able to get 2 pics of the tornado and attached them. The 3rd pic is as I was retrieving, with storm clouds moving in about 10 miles away or so.
 

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  • LRR Oct 12 Tornado 2.jpg
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GA_Boater

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

How many more signs do you need? :eek: Happy to see you're still around to write the saga. :)
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Thanks, me too. Had my original schedule not been compromised I would have hit the storms on the way home, much preferred.
 

aspeck

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Yikes! You got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, know when to run ...:eek: Glad you are safe.
 

southkogs

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

... walked under the ladder to climb on the boat ... had a black cat cross the bow ... broke the rear view mirror on the way over ...


... glad you had a "good" time. ;)
 

GA_Boater

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

I saw several almost Darwin's in that vid. :facepalm:
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

That guy had a dog with him, sheesh.
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

... walked under the ladder to climb on the boat ... had a black cat cross the bow ... broke the rear view mirror on the way over ...

I may try all that next time to change my luck... :)
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

I may need to clarify that when I launched it was back to partly cloudy skies, just real windy. I was not going to push it if it was stormy looking, although that lightning bolt while retrieving was a serious reminder about how fast things change.
 

GA_Boater

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Was this the same storm that dropped a foot on Austin in 12 hours, brought on flash flooding and caused Austin City Limits to close a day early?
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Hey GA,
Austin is quite a ways away from here, but the storms were all over from there and on north, pretty wide swath too. So, was not the same storm but definitely from the same conditions that spawned both systems. That tornado kind of fooled me, I had some trouble figuring out what it was, looked other-worldly at first, more like a Chute, going from Earth to another dimension in the clouds! It was darker on the edges and looked larger on the bottom than on the top giving it the Chute like appearance, like a piece of celery. In the pics it does not stand out as much as it did in full face to face panoramic view, pretty cool though. I was ready to take evasive action if it changed drastically.
 

GA_Boater

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

I used to live in Houston and one day at work the boss and I were looking out a window from the top floor. It was stormy and all these lighter colored nipples started dropping out of the dark clouds that were a ways off. They sort of oscillated, lengthening and shrinking randomly. Never came all the way to the ground, but still fascinating. And scary, too. I was leaning toward the stairwell. :)
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Cool. I saw some like that a long time ago in Wichita KS, rope tornadoes, coming down then going back up, there were like 6 or 7 of them in a line, I was glad they did not decide to combine forces!

In 1999 we had one go over our house there and damage our roof and garage door and quite a bit of damage to the neighborhood, another story for another time, but have to appreciate that power.
 

The Rooster

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

" Endeavor to Persevere" Love it !!! Glad you had a successful shakedown cruise. I liked the part in the movie where "Uncle Leo" from Seinfeld thought he caught himself the outlaw Jose Wales. :faint2:
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Yup, one of my favorite parts too! Great movie, great book.
 

Volphin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Heck, the tornado isn't near as bad as almost getting fried by lightning!

I LOVE that movie BTW:

Jamie: [Josey and Jamie are waiting for the Redlegs to cross the river] They comin'.
[Josie pulls a Sharp's rifle with a early telescopic sight on it from his horse]
Carpetbagger: Do you really think you can shoot all those men down before they shoot you? No, no, Mr. Josey Wales; there is such a thing in this country called justice!
Josey Wales: Well, Mr. Carpetbagger. We got somethin' in this territory called the Missouri boat ride.
[shoots the rope hauling the ferry across the river]
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Another great scene, PERFECT casting for that movie btw, great cinematic accomplishment
 

Maclin

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

Heck, the tornado isn't near as bad as almost getting fried by lightning!

That came out of nowhere really :faint2: You can see in the 3rd pic that while retrieving I was working totally in sunlight, the bolt hit about a minute after I took the pic, and due left of the view in the pic. The storms in the background were 4-5 miles out and not moving towards me. The bolt hit about 1/5 mile away I figure, as the clap hit my ears in just under a second. Not my time to go evidently :angel:
 

chriscraft254

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Re: TORNADO! A sign to turn around? or a test of Perseverance

If you can here or see the storm, you are in the lightnings compass. Not a good idea to put in when storms are near. That being said, just goes to show how crazy we all are about boating because I probably would have put in to. :)
That came out of nowhere really :faint2: You can see in the 3rd pic that while retrieving I was working totally in sunlight, the bolt hit about a minute after I took the pic, and due left of the view in the pic. The storms in the background were 4-5 miles out and not moving towards me. The bolt hit about 1/5 mile away I figure, as the clap hit my ears in just under a second. Not my time to go evidently :angel:
 
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