Storms and a sad, broken Mirror dinghy

We do need rain. Lots of it. So when I woke around 6am to the sound of pouring, with a bit of thunder in the distance, I wasn't worried.

It got heavier, and windier. The rain was blowing diagonally against the windows, which were even leaking slightly in a few places. I still wasn't worried. It was only a little bit, and easy to wipe up.

There was a bit of a leak in the roof over our stairs, but that's happened before in heavy rain when the wind's blowing it around. No damage to anything, even the pictures on the walls. No problem...

The rain eased slightly, and we went to do our weekly shopping. We had to take a slight detour, as some of the roads were flooded:


as was a small orchard not far from where we live:


But that's happened before. Last time it took a few days before it dried up, but the sun always comes out eventually.

There was even a lull in the rain while we brought our shopping in. Then Richard went to work. He had a phone call from our sailing friends, saying they'd been to the sailing club, to check the boats. Theirs had been blown over, but seemed to be all right. However Richard's little wooden Mirror dinghy was apparently blown right from one end to the other, and was seriously broken. They said they would put it back on the trailer as well as they could.

So after lunch we drove to the sailing club to check the damage. There had evidently been very severe wind there this morning, perhaps even a minor tornado, as there were large branches from trees in several places:


.. and this caravan, which had evidently been blown entirely upside down and destoyed completely:


And Richard's Mirror? At least we didn't see it in pieces all over the place, but it's very badly damaged. This is probably the worst bit:


... but there are cracks or breaks in several other places. And the mast is broken too:


So sad. Some of the other boats at the club had slight damage, but none as bad as this. Probably because (a) the Mirror was the smallest and lightest, so the most easily blown about, and (b) it's the only one made of wood.

Of course it's nothing like as terrible as the tornado that ripped through a town in Kansas earlier in the week, but still quite a shock.

Now the sky is almost yellow, and the rain is dirty and sandy. Probably rain from Egypt.