My 8-year old son is currently studying clouds in his second grade science class. While we were eating dinner last night we discussed the different type of clouds. My wife brought up the proverb, “red skies at night to the sailors delight.” This reminded me of an article that I had written for the site over 12-years ago based on information I had learned while in sea school. I pulled it up and shared some of the content with the family at the dinner table. Though the article is over a decade old the content is still accurate and has been since God created the “sky” on day 2, Genesis Chapter 1 Vs.8. We have added thousands of new readers since this was originally posted so I thought it would be great to re-run this for all to enjoy, from July 2004…
A couple of weeks back I was having a terrible Monday on a Wednesday. I arrived at home from work about 7 pm, tired, frustrated, and in desperate need of some quite time. Within 45-minutes Rusty, my 10-year old Golden Retriever, and I had the boat in the water and I was releasing a small Spanish Mackerel. As I looked back across the harbor at the falling sun I noticed it seemed to be getting dark a little bit earlier than usual. Over the next half hour I continued to release Spanish as I watched the setting sun become eclipsed by dark clouds. Not wanting to leave the fish and the relaxing time I stayed put and hoped that the approaching storm would just skirt around us toward Mt. Pleasant or James Island. The storm never wavered in its travels; however, and I quickly realized it was coming right down the gut of the harbor. I stowed my gear, laid the antennas and rods down and Rusty and I headed straight into the storm. As we approached the battery the temperature dropped 15 degrees and the winds picked up to a steady 35 knots. The heavy winds quickly transformed the harbor from a light chop to a raging 3 to 4-foot standing sea. Strong winds, rough water, lightning popping, blowing rain, a quite evening gone bad within a matter of minutes!
Strong thunderstorms