Of all of us, four-year old Karen seemed most concerned. “Is that anchor jammed in the ground, Dad?” she asked. This was our first storm at anchor.

When the winds were strong, the kids buried themselves down with our iPad. Rick turned on the engines and moved us forward a bit — more “out of practice,” than need is what he said.

Our First Real Storm at Anchor

On weekends Florida Bay is full of boats, jet skis, and people, who look deep in thought, on paddle boards. That’s what makes this Sunday a standout. We are in the middle of a tornado watch.

But it’s not a desolate scene. At least not for us. We are a 2-minute dinghy ride to Dave‘s waterfront home in Tavernier. From here, I can see palm trees turning themselves inside out — looking like giant dandelion clocks.

What is a Tornado Watch?

The National Weather Service identifies three key tornado alerts: a Tornado Watch, Tornado Warning and Tornado Emergency. A tornado watch in the Florida Keys means there is no traffic on the water. We are bobbing on our anchor, out here alone.

We subscribed to Chris Parker of Marine Weather Center for several years for weather information in Florida and the Caribbean. He also did weather routing for us as we sailed across the Pacific.

35-Knot Winds at Anchor

The worst of the storm seems to be over. The winds are strong — Force 8 on the Beaufort scale — or 35 knots, which is what we measured earlier this morning.

Later, when the storm has passed we will search for our missing fender. It’s large, oblong with a black fender sock. We had thought that the fender was tied down.

Meanwhile, Karen is enjoying her pancakes.

Update on the Missing Fender

We found our missing fender in the mangroves. But, the joy in finding it was short lived. While rowing to a gas station, our family learned a hard lesson about checking our dinghy fuel level.

Running out of of fuel was not fun. We were glad to have had oars and a working VHF in our dinghy, but we should have had emergency water.

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