Wind

 

It has been windy here.  It has been windier offshore.  We woke Thursday morning to a sailboat parked on the beach.  Sailboats don’t normally park on our beach.  A couple from South Padre Island lost control of their sloop the day before in the big wind and ended up 150 miles from home.  Their mast still up, but the mainsail down in wreckage.  The jib still up, flapping in tatters.  The boat was upright in about 3 feet of water and rocking back and forth in the waves.  That’s another bad sign for a sailboat.  You would expect a sailboat with a keel to be lying on its side in shallow water.  I’m guessing the keel was lost somewhere along the way as well.

 

Their towed dingy was still attached to the boat by a rope, but the dinghy was upside down.  The couple that parked the boat there appeared safe and sound, but I’ll bet they had a long night.  The boat came ashore a ways to the south, and worked its way up the beach during the night.

 

So what do you do with a sailboat stranded far from home?  We’re watching to see.  The towboat company arrived on the beach with a large pickup truck.  They tied the sailboat off to the truck so it won’t continue wandering up the beach with the wind.

 

Now.  A couple days later, everyone and everything is gone; except the sailboat.  It’s just rocking back and forth gently in the waves.  Maybe you don’t have to do anything with a sailboat stranded far from home.  Maybe they’re not coming back for it.