I've Got That Sinking Feeling

Anyone living on the water can tell you about tides, winds, and the combination of both.

Squalls are a common occurrence when living on the water. To be more accurate, squalls can happen anywhere. If you look up the definition of squall, you’ll see that it is a sudden and violent gust of wind or worse - a localized storm that brings heavy precipitation.

You really don’t need to be on or near the water to experience a squall, however, it does happen more frequently, when you do and I can tell you from experience, that those types of squalls can be horrifically dangerous.

However, you can and more often will experience a squall if you’re near water. Whether on or near a harbor, or a more open body of water, as in the Gulf of Mexico, or the Bering Straits, you are familiar with squalls – or at least know about them.

I live only three miles from Charlotte Harbor in Florida, and I have seen and gotten caught in my share of those violent storms.

Storms can materialize in a matter of seconds leaving an unexperienced boater or one just not paying attention to the skies at the mercy of mother nature.

As most cities and towns on the coast of Florida, we are a coastline of boaters but while most of the more violent storms come from the Atlantic, we, here on the Southwest side see our share of the violent weather and the destruction can be devastating.

One land occurrence that comes to mind is an incident concerning a trio of golfers. While my husband and I live on a canal, across the street is the local golf course. It was a beautiful, calm day and while working in our front yard, I noticed two of the men standing around their golf cart while the third was lining up his tee.

In a matter of a few mere seconds, the sky blackened, the wind picked up hard and forced a fierce driving rain to soak the ground. Thunder roared and lightning flashed. My husband and I headed indoors. While we were concerned about the golfers, we knew there wasn’t a thing we could do to help them.

Almost as soon as we closed the front door, we heard a very loud BOOM! For a second or two, the house shook. We knew in an instant that something had been hit by the lightning. We just, at that point didn’t know what or where. The electric power to our house was temporarily knocked out.

The next day, we found out the extent of the lightning strike.

The three gentlemen who’d been playing golf, had hip replacement surgeries earlier that year. They had been recovering nicely, however, when the lightning struck a nearby tree, the powerful electricity traveled through the tree, into the ground, through grass, shocking the golfers. The force was so great and hot, it fused their new hip joints. Each now faced more surgeries to repair the damage caused by the lightning.

Honestly, this is a true story. I spoke with each gentleman as soon as they were released from the hospital.

It was a strange and unique occurrence but true, nonetheless.

Here in Charlotte Harbor, we have several mooring stations which isn’t uncommon in harbors throughout the country. However, I’m just going to speak about where I live – Punta Gorda where we abut Charlotte Harbor. As I said earlier, my house is only three miles away from the harbor where I enjoy taking pictures.

The day started off with a beautiful golden-yellow sunrise. The sky had just enough blue to hint that as the day progressed and the sun rose a bit higher, it would be the perfect day for an outing. We had the day planned. My husband and his friend would go fishing. I would grab my camera and visit a few of the waterfront parks. We’d had a squall the day before and I had a feeling I’d see many interesting scenes to capture in my camera. Even when a branch or a palm frond falls, it’s often the where and in what position in lands that can spark one’s imagination.

My first stop was Dunkin Donuts where I picked up coffee and a bagel. I drove to a land-locked park in Port Charlotte where I intended to have my breakfast before I headed to the nature trail. After an hour of walking and taking a few photos, I left that park and headed to Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda.

Pulling into the parking lot of Punta Gorda Boat Club, I saw it immediately! The squall from the previous day, loosened the ties on a moored sailboat. The wind had grabbed hold of the boat and pushed it into the shallows of the harbor where it ended up on the rocks and began taking on water. With the boat sitting on the riprap and other inshore boulders, it didn’t sink completely, but just enough to cause significant damage.

I sat and watched as the quick-changing tide started once again to raise the boat. The problem now was that the bow line had gotten wedged between two of the larger boulders preventing the boat from rising completely.

There it sat, half sunken and ready to sink even further with the rising of the tide.

In my 20+ years in Punta Gorda, I’ve seen so many boats meet this fate and yet, there isn’t much that can be done. Mooring systems aren’t the greatest invention, but they definitely beat just anchoring your boat and taking that kind of chance should a squall pass through.

While I empathize with the boat owners, each time I see a boat come to its end in such a manner, I can’t them but think, “I’ve got that sinking feeling.”

A friend of mine who accompanied me on one of my many photo-taking trips, started singing, “And another one bites the dust” and I reminded her while laughing at her attempt of humor, “Yeah, but it isn’t in the dust! It’s in the water and it’s still sinking”.