August 23, 2011.

Like everybody else on the eastern seaboard we've been watching the swirling mayhem known as Irene. Its kind of amusing to me that whenever someones area is in Mother Natures crosshairs they start to pray that it doesn't happen “here”. But then when their prayers are answered and the storms predicted path moves away from them and focuses on somebody less fortunate they begin to pray for those folks. Wait a minute, didn't you pretty much just wish this weather on somebody else? Your prayers were answered, its gonna be hell for somebody else and now they're trying to pray it onto a third party? Where does it end?

Irene looks as if she might spare Florida. Then for a while it looked like the South Carolina/ North Carolina border was going to be ground zero here in the states. Now it seems that the Outer Banks are gonna get hammered. If it skims the Outer Banks it could come slamming right up the Chesapeake Bay. We'll have to wait and see, its the weather, we'll be ready but anything could happen. Me, I'm praying it stays offshore until it slams into Long Guyland. And today while I was deep in prayer we had a freaking EARTHQUAKE!!

I was down inside a boat that was floating in the lifting well. I heard the travel lift start making this horrendous noise. I poked my head out the companionway and was startled to see the travel lift jumping around doing the shimmy shimmy shake shake. I turned around and every piling in the marina was violently wagging back and forth.

It was bizarre to see. I was in the floating boat so I felt nothing but everywhere I looked things that usually don't move were doing the Watusi. The several dozen people in the 3 story office building adjacent to the boat yard came flying down the stairs and out into the parking lot.

I could actually feel the nervous energy in the air as I moved through the people checking the stands of the boats on the hard. It was funny to see all the individual and sometimes competing brokers gather together and become one herd for safety. I'm now praying that when I experience my second earthquake I'll have my camera ready.