June 24, 2012 - Hope Island birthday cruise

Cindy, for her 10th birthday party, wanted to invite her friends to spend the night on the boat with her.  We said sure, but just two friends.  She invited Natalie and Roxy, her two best friends.  Kevin spent the night with her Aunt Pat, which made the boat trip even more special for Cindy.

The weather was TERRIBLE Saturday when her friends arrived at around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.  It was raining, there was thunder, and as I was listening to the NOAA Marine Weather Forecast on the VHF radio they had instructions on what to do if you are about to be hit by lightning!  I have NEVER heard this before on the NOAA VHF forecast and I've been listening to it for more than 15 years of boating.  Yikes, we are going out in this.

Oh, the instructions went something like this:

 "If your skin begins to tingle, or your hair starts to stand on end (that cue doesn't work well for me) then crouch down on the balls of you feet and get as low as you can while minimizing your contact with the ground.  Don't be the tallest thing around you".  

Anyway, the boat was warm and dry inside so it didn't really matter that is was rainy, foggy, and we could occasionally hear thunder.