Gale force winds are rated at 40 to 75 mph...

We are on the boat now and have been for about three days, though still at the starting point. Yesterday we took the boat out for a little while just do some work and relax for a bit, not checking the weather report, because... well it was sunny and clear. On the way in after a couple hours we saw a little thunderstorm in the distance, and with only about a half a mile to go we noticed that it had caught us. No biggy we thought, just a little rain and a lot of lighting. Wrong... As we pull into the slip, and before we can tie down, the storm shows its real face. We got repeatedly slammed into the boat beside us while using all of our strength to try to tie her down. This battle lasted a good ten minutes, as the rain hit our skin like nails. A few times I wasn't sure if we were to make it without heavy damage, but somehow we pulled it off. We did get a nice amout of water in the cabin because of an open porthole and Bret, our faithful shouffer and Alex's uncle, had his glasses thrown off of his face and into the water behind him. A couple good things did result from the chaos though. The light on my phone hasn't worked since the last storm it weathered, but now it works again. I bought a brand new pillow to replace the old piece of crap one I brought that is now thoroughly soaked. And Bret, while proclaiming, "I'll never be able to find my glasses," puts his hand down on the first try and picks them up. By the way, the storm had sustained 40 mph winds with gusts in the 60s. It ripped the roof off of one of the marina buildings, tore down some fences and knocked down a telephone pole. It was totally badass. For those of you who worry about us, it's probably good we already experienced a storm of this scale, because its likely we won't see many more like it.

Anywho, we're still working through repairs and its likely that it will be at least 2 or 3 more days before we shove off.