Yesterday afternoon, while sailing Galveston Bay, a group of strong storms began to descend into the Houston area. Fortunately, we were near the channel leading back to Clear Lake and our marina, so we wasted no time dropping the sails and motoring in while hoping to beat the storm. Just as we entered the marina when I thought we had it made, the storm front hit: as we motored towards our dock the wind jumped from 10 to 27 kts, then fell to 3 and back up to over 20. As we approached our slip, I had to shove the boat into a SW, 20+ kt wind which veered abruptly to the north, thus pushing the boat rapidly toward the pier. With the help of a 3-blade prop turning in reverse at high rpm and my wife's quick jump to the dock with a bow line, we brought the boat in without a scratch. I've docked boats hundreds of times, but this was the hairiest I've experienced.
Here are some shots before and after the storm.
Jer
Still on the Bay with storms approaching:
Motoring in the channel - note that the cloud looks like a misshappen skull (hardly heart lifting at that moment):
Five minutes after docking, the clouds form a cauldron swirling above marina, but - it never fails - the wind dropped to zero (ideal for docking) and didn't come up intil and hour or so later
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Originally posted by Rense 
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