And in today’s headlines:

“Storm Bringing Winds, Rain, Flooding Threat”
“New Storm Batters Western Washington”
“We know November is usually stormy, but…”

Y’know, I never intended this to be a “weather blog.” Mother Nature has just made it impossible to not be riveted by her every action recently. Power is out in several places around the area (can I just giggle as I turn on the generator on my self-sufficient little boat?), winds are gusting to 70 mph, and flood watches remain in effect for today and tomorrow.

The galley sink actually talks to me during a good storm; there’s a gurgle/blurble sort of happy noise coming continuously from the drain as the waves lap against the boat. The exterior outlet is below the water line, so I’m a little surprised by all the commotion (doesn’t all the pressure sort of even out somewhere down there? Hydraulics will be my next field of study, I think). At any rate, I’ve decided to label it “happy noises” as opposed to “massively obnoxious noises.” I’ve definitely noticed that attitude is EVERYTHING when adapting to change. I don’t even mind the bilge pump every 2 minutes at night anymore. That too is a “happy noise.”

The heater is still giving us fits. Guy came out to fix it, and it did run for several hours (during which time I absolutely luxuriated in actual warmth – the hedonistic pleasure was phenomenal), but alas, 1:00 am came and the flame went out again. *sigh*

Hey, look outside, everybody! Whitecaps on the river! Wooo-HOOoooo!

Yes, it’s a cruddy photo, but use your imagination a little! The orange on the left is the flaming vehicle on the bridge and the rest of the lights are the fire trucks. Just another interesting day on the river!

Which will be much colder than this last one. That’s a good thing, as the moisture should stay in the mountains in the form of snow. It’s still raining hard, but the river seems to have calmed quite a bit and there’s no more debris whacking the hull.

The heater did go out on me again last night, but I am fast becoming a Hurricane Diesel Heater Expert. I have my little magic wire trick, plus I changed out the fuel filter and have everything running nicely again.

This is a picture of the valley that a friend of mine took. All that is covered with water should be fields and pasture.

…or is it just me? Yes, I’ll admit it, my nerves are shot tonight. After very little sleep yesterday, I’m tired and a little edgy, which doesn’t help. Great day today, lots of cool stuff to look at, pride about the vigilant stance which I maintained all last night, and that obviously misplaced sense that I had “successfully passed the worst of it.” But now, at 11:00 pm, I feel like I’m in the foxhole getting mortared. The hits to the boat are frequent and cause the whole boat to tremble. They’re also just unpredictable enough that if I relax for a moment, another Boom/Shudder combination will shoot another rush of adrenaline through my system. Which was new and interesting for the first hour, but is getting a little wearying now. KJ seems to be handling it all with aplomb; since this whole situation doesn’t faze her a bit, I can’t imagine much that will.

This is the park in Snohomish. Those are picnic table tops you can see by the tree. The worst flood here in recent memory was in 1990. At that time the flood reached 33.5 feet above flood stage. Yesterday we were at 34.5 ft. Today we had another levee break. Now Lake Snohomish reaches from Everett in the west, up the valley (about 21 miles) to Sultan. The town of Sultan is underwater and Monroe is threatened. All the roads south of Snohomish are closed. Hwy 2 is also closed.

Trail leading to the park. And did I mention that it’s raining hard again right now?

Yes, dear reader, I’m up prowling the docks in the middle of the night. What else would any sane boat owner be doing during a record breaking flood?

I was awakened by the creaking docklines and the log banging the bejesus out of the front end of the boat. I did actually lie in bed for a few more minutes, wondering if I could reasonably justify ignoring it all and going back to sleep. That lasted through a few more groans from the ropes, when I became my own drill instructor and ordered myself out of bed. Grabbed a flashlight and proceeded to inspect KJ in the cold dark night. I was afraid that something might have been caught between the dock and the boat, thereby adding to the strain on the lines as the river tried to push Said Object downstream.

But it appears to be nothing more than the bottom of a -3.0 tide coupled with the huge amount of water pouring downriver. I don’t imagine that I’ll ever see the water running this fast through the channel again (at least I sincerely hope not!).

On the plus side, I received an email from our new blog friends over at http://mvbowie.blogspot.com/ Waterlogged (bowiechick knows how to insert re-named links into her text – she’s way ahead of me there). That email, in the middle of the night, on a boat alone, was cheering to my damp soul. Reminds me that there are others out there, listening to the waters rush by and keeping watchful eye on their boats too.

That said, I’m off to bed again. Further updates as events warrant, which could be in as little time as a few hours with the way things are going. Who knew living aboard would offer such excitement?