Out Like a Lion

"What?" My husband asked.

"Out like a lion. You know," I said, "If winter goes out like a lion, spring comes in like a lamb". He had not heard of that saying but it's one that I remember from my elementary years growing up in lower Michigan. We had crazy winters some times and then sweet springs; other times, it was an easy winter and spring raged in its arrival.

Last week, we were slated to get up to five inches of wet, heavy snow where I live in a mideastern state. Yet, no white ever came; just, hard cold wind and a lot of rain. Due to the direction of the wind, our tides were high and our piers were underwater.  Luckily, we did our "dog duty" before I was trapped on the boat at a height too high to jump from.

We rocked all day; at times, I had visions of Old Man Winter fiercely blowing his winter breath directly on our port side. My wonderful husband considers storm maintenance a "blue job" so he braved the wind and rain when he would head outside to check and adjust our lines and other boats on our dock.

The dog has learned to position himself out of the way and peacefully slumber through our storms.

Power remained on until around 5 pm and that's when we used our backup heat - Mr. Buddy. He's a wonderful friend that warms up the entire cabin. He glowed all night as we read, listened to our NPR station on the radio, and feasted on chips and dip and Paula Deen's Hurry Up Chicken Pot Pie - so good. (Note: I make the recipe without the eggs or butter and I use any leftover chicken we have as well as any canned or frozen veggies.)

The darkness aboard is skilled at making us incredibly sleepy so we bundled into our aft berth at around 8 pm. Mr. Buddy remained on and we pulled the dog under the covers with us (without power, he's a portable mini-heater). The Mr. Buddy heater has an oxygen sensor on it, so at 11 pm when the propane tank had been used up, we were unsuccessful at lighting the heater with a new canister. The oxygen in the cabin was too low to allow the flame or heater to ignite. No problem, though. We just bounded back into bed and slept warmly and soundly until our wake up at 5 am, when the heater did work again.

Now, spring seems to have sprung and we're enjoying the sunshine and open hatches; even the dog is liking being able to sun himself in the cockpit, smelling (I imagine) all the spring critters that are moving about.

After the storm, we've had some high tides as we  hear the wind direction is still one that is pushing water up into our surrounding river and creek.  But no, problem - life aboard in the spring, to me, is the best place to be.