Day 1   - Preparations

Before my father ever had his first sailboat, I remember the night we were gathered at the kitchen table after dinner. He had come home with a package and I could feel the excitement as he opened it up. I must have been four or five and, at that age, just the surprise of unwrapping anything was a treat itself.

He took the brown paper off to reveal a framed white and yellow metal map, and a small baggie of red magnetic dots.

"What it is?" my sister and I asked.

My father answered, "A hurricane tracking map."

 Years before the internet and mobile devices, hurricane coordinates were broadcast over the radio or on the evening news, then we would track the storms on our own. In the summer months, I remember Publix (Florida's very own grocer, where "shopping is a pleasure") actually printed hurricane tracking maps on their paper grocery bags. Now we had one of our own - with MAGNETS we could move, re-use for every storm! I was a kid with a new toy!

This," my father explained, running his finger up through the Virgin Islands, past the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Bahamas toward Florida, "is Hurricane Alley.” He spoke with the knowing mysticism that only a father can have. “It's the path hurricanes follow as they come off Africa.”

"Who’d ever want to live there?" I said, thinking it was utterly crazy to live in path of such possible destruction.

"We do," he replied with a captain's confidence, a security from deep inside that he could weather any storm. As I grew up, the map hung for many years next to our barometer. Each season, I remember waiting for the next storm coordinates to be announced on the AM radio so I could plot the latest position. If I missed an announcement, I could always count on my mom to write them down and I'd be sure to mark the track.

Next Entry: Day 2   - Beginning (Hurricanes)