Heartbeat?

When we first named our boat, my sister found a very appropriate poem that I have taken excerpts from, then framed it so it greets everyone when they enter our winter home. It is written by someone named Trixie Love:

Softly I hear your
Heart speak,
In the silence of
The night...

For you have fulfilled
My every dream.
Into a new horizon
It would be an honor
To journey through with you....

Tonight the heart has a really bad murmur. In fact when I looked up the exact definition of a murmur, it fit tonight's weather conditions perfectly. "A heart murmur is an extra or unusual sound heard during a heartbeat. Murmurs range from very faint to very loud. They sometimes sound like a whooshing or swishing noise." Just replace the blood with wind, and lots of it! Naturally, none of this was predicted and although it was a bit windy all day today, it was predicted to ease. Not so say the wind and rain gods! The wind is howling at gale force, or as our British friends say, "It's blowing a hoolie!" New Horizon is straining on her mooring lines, but at least I know I am secure with brand new shackles and hardware that attaches the mooring lines to the chain and cement block that I am hooked up to. I am more concerned about making sure my two dinghies(one of which is a borrowed one, since the day after Dave left, doesn't it figure that my outboard motor wouldn't start)stay tied to the side of the boat and don't go 'walkabout' in the mangroves, or sink in the rain squalls. The boat is really rocking and rolling, and I know why they say, "One hand for the ship!" I'm actually glad it is dark for once, so I can't see how wildly the boats, mine included, are swinging around. I can even hear the chairs up in my flybridge skidding across the floor. Of course I can't be too concerned, since I am sitting here in my easy chair, writing this blog. Tomorrow will be an interesting day when I get back to solid ground though. I probably won't be able to walk straight. It will be hard to distinguish between the landlubbers who spent Saturday night at the bars, and the sailors who experienced all this wind. I guess you could say we're all in the same boat!