Who You Callin' A Sucker?

Yesterday, I learned a new term from baybor Gary:

Sucker Hole

-a colloquial term referring to a short spate of good weather that "suckers" sailors into leaving port just in time for a storm to resume at full force.

As you might imagine, we're some pretty big suckers around here.  Ben and I stayed at the hotel from Tuesday through Friday morning.  We even brought Adam and Jasmine back with us on Thursday afternoon, after we stopped by to check out the status on the mooring field (and Mother Culture, in particular).  For more than three days, we enjoyed heat, electricity and cable television while our other baybors rode out the succession of storms inside the comfort (?) of their boats.  On Friday morning, we returned to the field, just in time to get soaked as we dinghied back to Mo-C. 

Rain poured down for a couple hours before the bright, beautiful sun made her glowing appearance.  I popped out of the boat to tend to the solar panels, which had been battened down for days.  I didn't want to waste a minute of that glorious, free electricity.  It felt like that scene in the Wizard of Oz, just after Dorothy's house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, when all the little munchkins appear one by one to assess the damage.  As I looked down the line of boats, I could see Adam on his deck, Justin on his deck, Paul rowing by, Ray motoring by with baby boxer Duke in the bow adorned in his life jacket.  There was once again life on the mooring field.  Was the storm finally over?

It appeared so.  I woke Ben from his hibernation and snatched up Lola and we headed for land to enjoy the good weather.  Enter Sucker hole #1 and at least two suckers. 

Just as we were finishing up at the grocery store, the sky opened up and rain spewed all over our sunny world.  Have you ever heard of a graupel?  Neither did I, until yesterday.  Apparently, this is a miniature version of that crap you call hail.  This is the stuff we live in San Diego to avoid.  We hurried back to the dock and rowed our soup bowl back to Mo-C, where we commenced to wait for Sucker hole #2. 

The rain stopped again and Ben decided it would be a good time to go over to the dock to repair a recently purchased Livingston dinghy he intends to use as a fishing boat.  Just as he hopped into his dinghy, the sky opened up again.  He hopped back into Mother Culture, where he patiently awaited Sucker hole #3. 

When Sucker hole #3 finally visited us, Ben rowed with Adam over to the dock and began to fiberglass his new (used) dinghy.  Maybe this wasn't a Sucker hole after all.  Perhaps the rain was finally over... for good.  We'd been waiting five days for this.  It must have been a good two hours or so that they were on the dock repairing the dinghy.  I even brought Lola over for a walk and a visit.  (That's when Gary came down the dock and turned me on to the term "Sucker hole".)  Just as Lola and I returned to Mother Culture so I could sit down for the evening and work, I heard the drops.  They started slowly at first... and then came down with a quickness.  A while later, I heard a commotion out in the cockpit and then a sopping Ben dropped through the companionway feet first like Santa sliding down a chimney. 

The remainder of the night was uneventful.  Ben went to work and I went to bed.  By the time I awoke and he went to sleep, the sun was shining again.  I'm not sure if this is another sucker hole, but I'm certain I'm not going to be a sucker again.  I think I'll stay inside 'til summer.