How High's the Water, Mama?

Or so the song went.  The answer was:  eight feel high and rising.  That could fairly well describe the raining cats and dogs weather we've experienced since Sunday.   Winds are gusting at 40 mph at the lake with predictions they'll top 60 mph sometime this afternoon.

I checked on Sparkle Plenty earlier this morning.  The docks were rocking.  They were rolling.  And Bob was going with the flow.  It was blowing big time.  Rain was flying sideways.  It was difficult to stand up straight.  I helped Bob secure one boat.  As I knelt down to secure the boat the dock moved every which say making it hard to tie a decent knot.  Think E ride.

It has so very violent in terms of wind and wave action that the sailboat across from SP snapped both of its starboard (that's the right side for you landlubbers) mooring lines.  The up and down motion coupled with too much slack placed too much stress on the lines and they gave up the fight.

Our boat has similar lines but secured in such a way so as not to allow a lot of movement.  They're 3/8 inch in diameter which is normally sufficient to hold a boat the size of SP or 4,500 pounds tensile strength for each line from boat to dock.

The failure of the lines holding the boat across the way freaked me out even though it was not properly moored.  So I went out and bought 1/2 inch dock lines with a tensile strength of 8,500 pounds.  I'll be damned if I was going to sit and do nothing and the lines consequently failed.  I'll  exchange the mooring lines with the half inchers once the wind has died a bit.   Fingers crossed what's there hold up through the remainder of the storm.

So, the rain that's falling.  You're read about our California storm or seen it on television.   Get this.  Since midnight Sunday until noon today (Wednesday) a total of 12.5 inches of wet stuff has fallen on the lake.  What was a lake down 11 feet last week is now a lake ready to break its banks.  Parks Service can't dump water fast enough to keep that from happening.  And rain continues to fall, at this moment, at the rate of an inch an hour.  I think I can see cats and dogs falling from the sky!

How high's the water, Mama?

Hello, Noah?  I heard you were building something called an Ark.  Any chance I can sign on?

Last night's steak dinner with Marina Bob was good.  Nothing unusual except no pictures were taken per his wish.  But I have to say he was proud as punch to be able to eat a 20 ounce T-bone with no problem whatsoever.  Bob was grinning, new teeth and all, from ear to ear most of the evening.  

Marina Bob is just 40 years old.  It's nice to see that on this next phase of his life's journey that he's on the right track.  I think he's going to make it.