As Claudette Arrives

After church, we grabbed a picnic lunch and our usual gear and headed south to the lighthouse.

Now we are not storm chasers and when we left home Claudette was still Tropical Depression #4 and there was no rain yet on shore.

It did make for an interesting trip, though.

The sweebay trees were our first visual reminder of the rising wind. The leaves were wrong-side out, looking very silvery from a distance in the gray light. It made the red seedpods all the more noticeable.

The contrast of the dark sky and the white painted lighthouse was striking.

As we got closer to the bay shore, the east wind continued to strengthen.

Palm branches were shaking themselves loose and crashing into the road.

In the bay, we could see the first band of heavy rain moving in and the wind had blown the water up pretty high already. High tide was about 11am and it was about 1:30 when I took this picture.

We were glad to see the boat trailer parking lot was for the birds only. Everyone had already come in.

“Hey, Henry, did you hear about the storm that’s comin’? We better go check the radar soon!”

This wind’s enough to “tern” your stomach!”

We saw lots of ospreys—three over one pond!  This osprey was having some difficulty maneuvering.

 

B called my attention to the waterlilies. The wind had flipped them up on the windward side so that their garnet undersides were showing across the pond.

This was a few miles inland but it was the hardest wind we had. By the time we left, the wind was getting crazy, as in over 30mph.

It started to rain as we were getting into the truck. It was time to go home.

The drive home took us through some heavy rain for a few miles, but then that was it and when we got home, it had not rained at all.

That is when we learned Claudette has been named.