August 26, 2007
Path of Hurricane Dean from the National Hurricane Center
Last week, I spent most of my time glued to the television and to the computer continually monitoring every movement of hurricane Dean. I was absolutely positive Nereus would be a hurricane magnet while in Mobile. I constantly made and revised contingency plans, ready to go at any moment to move up river and out of the way. The theory was, with my boat an easy target, hurricanes will come. As soon as I move it out of harm’s way, the hurricane will go elsewhere. I figured it was my civic duty to save the fine people of Mobile and get Nereus out of there.
However, we got lucky and Dean, the third nastiest landfall hurricane ever took its furry out on somebody else. Maybe our good deeds of giving away free beer to stranded sailors paid off.
We are tired of all this stress. It is time to get this done! As a family, we’ve decided to just go! Tomorrow, the crew of Nereus will return to Dog River and finish the job I so gallantly botched three weeks ago. And everyone is coming: me, Vanessa (the Admiral), Binga, and even Jeanie (the evil boat cat who is now diabetic and just as devious as ever). The family together! How perfect this trip will be!
Yeah, right. We are resigned to the fact that something is going to go wrong! It is the way of things. Vanessa and I have started placing bets on what it will be. I no longer care, as I have decided everything possible will go wrong, but we are getting there if I have to pull the boat with a line in my teeth while swimming upstream and fighting off alligators single-handed!
So, stay tuned, because if stuff doesn’t go wrong, there’ll be nothing fun to write about!
-Steve