what a nice, mellow day! pam and i decided that today could be a day of rest, even though it is not sunday. we've been doing this and that and going here and there every day since we've arrived. it was time for a rest...
this mornng we were awakened to the anchor alarm going off again, we sprang up to find papa jerry sitting in the stern of the boat soaking in his last moments aboard. we didn't appear to be dragging anchor, but that got us going for the day. we made ready, pulled anchor, and headed for the docks one last time; this time just long enough to drop jerr bear off at his car, and bid him fare well. he'll be visiting a few friends around here for the next couple days, and then fly back to his home in florida on sunday. pulling up to the dock went off without much excitement (a very good thing). only little bit of excitement was that owen waited to be near the dock and then bounded off the boat, which was very brave of him. he got to the dock and didn't really know where to go from there, so it was easy to "catch" him again. he walked with us on his little kitty leash. we said goodbyes at the car, and then in good midwestern style, said goodbyes a second time at the boat (he'd forgotton a few things, and came running up the dock before we left). thank you papa jerr bear for your help and your company these last 12 days!
now it is "me and you and a dog named boo," exept it's not a dog, it's a cat, and his name isn't boo, it's owen. when we left the dock the wind had died down to near zero, so we decided to take it super easy and simply motor out to the bay around the corner, where we'd been last night. it was nice yesterday, it'll be nice today! so it was down with the anchor, and soak in the surrounding seas.
[going to bed... i'll finish this post in the morning... good night]
we had a lovely, easy afternoon and evening. t'was a rather warm one, so we swam twice, and i figured out how to attach our little tarp (kell called it a bimini, but i don't see how to use it as one... yet). however, as a camper i have learned to absolutely love the invention of the tarp! there have been many hours of pleasure in the boundary waters canoe area when i've put up the ol' tarp, taking lots of time to adjust this rope and that rope, on this tree and that tree to get it perfectly over the fire grate, so that we could sit there in the pouring rain, with a warm fire burning with narry a drop to wet us as we cheerily chatted the storms (or when i'm alone to read and dream the rain away). so it was pure joy for me to figure out how this here piece of white canvas would fit on cricket. i fiddled with this and that line to my heart's content. it was blissful to realize i had all the "trees" one could want to tie the lines to in the form of stays ( the wire lines that hold the mast in place). in a couple of hours we had a sweet little tarp hovering over us, not to keep us out of the rain, but rather to shield us from the sun's intense rays. we didn't have a campfire under it since it was too hot already ; ). the tarp will work very well for shade on hot days when we're anchored, but not while we're under sail. we're finding that the sails themselves work well enough for that. most boats have a bimini over the cockpit to shade those under it. our good friend john of the "seawing" told us that we'd soon be real sailors, and real sailors don't use biminis. we're finding that when you're sailing on this boat you can get the sail trim just right, put on the auto helm, and keep watch anywhere on the boat, thus being able to sit under the shade of a sail (as long as there aren't too many other boats around to run into). sweet huh! anyway... back to the subject of the tarp... we sat under our new discovery and had a lovely dinner Pam had prepared while i played with the thing, and read, and talked, and didn't get a severe sunburn.
in the evening dark clouds moved in, the sky turned stormy purple and pink colors, lighting bolted around us, and the winds began to blow up. cricket made a 180 turn around her anchor, and we watched as we dragged anchor and chain here and there until the wind decided which direction to blow in, and then the anchor set itself in the mud once again. we weren't too concearned because we had given her plenty of sea room in all directions. then came the rain. it was nice to have the rain fall once again, as we haven't had any for well over a week. we welcomed the little storm. i took down my little tarp, because i'm not sure how much wind it can take (or how much wind we would get), so pam and i sat in the stern with our new umbrellas (which we bought to shade us from the sun... but still no bimini, so we're still "real sailors!") as long as we could in the rain. as we watched to storm move to the east into the darkness of night, we watched the boat lights move across the bay, and listened to them talk on the marine band radio. the clouds began to break, and stars began to appear. another great day. even though the day was fairly lazy, we felt plenty tired enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment