We drove the 3 hours to the beach with Paul and Stephanie yesterday and were having a lovely time. It was crazy hot and we set up our campsite and had enjoyed frolicking in the surf together. We were enjoying ourselves immensely:
I even took some video documenting how cool it was to camp on a beach:
Ted and I started to hear some thunder in the distance, and there was a chance of rain in the forecast, so we quickly set up our tent and put our things away to keep them dry. Stephanie and Paul returned and we got everything covered and ready for some rain, which came quickly:
Literally minutes after the above video was shot, the wind picked up like nothing we've ever seen before. We first noticed the tarp coming off of the top of the Jeep, so Paul ran over to secure it down. In an instant the wind was blowing even harder and our canopy started to COLLAPSE and blow away. Stephaine, Ted and I jumped up and grabbed hold of it as the wind picked up even more. We could feel the metal crumpling as we held on with all of our might. I remember looking over at our tent, which was staked down a few feet away. It seemed stable. The wind picked up even more and I felt as though I might be pulled into the ocean with the canopy, which was completely imploding at this point. The next thing I saw was Ted and Stephanie running after our TENT, which was tumbling into the ocean (full of all of our stuff) like tumbleweed in a tornado. It was mass hysteria. All the while it was torrential downpour as well and we were all getting soaked to the bone. Luckily it didn't last long, but after approximately 10 minutes of this, our campsite was completely demolished and a few pieces of key camping gear completely destroyed.
With our site destroyed and our spirits a bit dashed, we decided that the best thing to do would be to pack it in. We might have reconstructed and persevered through the night if all of our clothes and sleeping gear weren't drenched. None of us felt like freezing all night, and we had no idea if wind like that was going to occur again. So we quickly loaded the Jeep back up and headed home, with quite a camping story to tell!
1 comment:
Holy crap... that's pretty scary! How about you stay off the ocean's edge until hurricane season passes? Or at least wear some nice bright orange life vests while you get some sun. We don't want you blowing out to sea!
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