20090805: ways to cool off

20090805

after our first night out at sea it felt good to sleep in. very good! when we were both finally awake sometime between ten and eleven (i won't say who was up last) we had no definite plans for the day, so it was time to examine our options. while looking into and thinking about a few options (1: start north up the bay, 2: go north a wee bit to downtown norfolk 3: stay here  in old point comfort bay) i realized that i was too pleasantly groggy to decide without a good cup of coffee, and last time we had been here we had seen a nice coffee shop a short dinghy ride and a short walk away. so it was decided. stay it is. pam was happy to do just that, even though she wasn't as happily groggy as i (happy, yes. groggy, no). good decision.
we had a lovely rest of the short morning and long afternoon sitting in the air conditioned comfort of the pheobus coffee shop. it was one of the hottest and muggiest days yet, so sitting sipping hot coffee in a cold shop was just fine by us! we arranged to have cricket hauled out in deltaville : ( while we were there. afterwards we visited a cute little antique shop that was a bit disheveled, but had many fun old toys and things like tonka trucks and gi joes and old fisher price cash registers and plastic garden gnomes and lionel train sets and transistor radios and... you get the idea. they were also air conditioned.
when we got back to cricket it was hotter n blazes. hot enough for pam to sweat drops and drops! so naturally we thought for mealtime it would be good to enjoy some corn beef hash and eggs hot of the stovetop! just to match the temp... it was absolutely delicious! i wonder if that was the extra flavor could've been from pam's sweat dripping onto the frypan? i know a lot of love was dripping in there, for sure!
i tryed to move our ship's gps receiver to no avail. 
this evening we saw dark, dark clouds coming from the west. when the grey, bubbly clouds arrived they brought with them some pretty terrific lightning and thunder, a pile of pelting rain, and some mighty winds to drive it all! we realised we could probably use a little more scope (length) to our anchor chain, and i went forward to let some out. as the chain was running through the winch a great gust of wind caught cricket and pushed her back hard. the chain began to fly out of the chain locker over the winch. there was nothing i could do but watch it fly out. you don't want to grab flying chain with your bare hands! lesson one: wear boots when you're playing with anchor chain in a gale. before i knew it all 100 feet of chain had gone out, and 100 feet of line (rope) attached to it was flying out as well! i knew i didn't want to reach the bitter end of the line (it is attached to a cleat down below, but at the rate it was coming out, i was afraid it would tear it right off the boat). i let it run through my hands. lesson two: wear gloves when you're playing with anchor line in a gale. i tried to get a wrap around one end the sampson post (a very strong block of wood at the ship's bow, with a very strong iron rod going through it to secure the anchor to), but it was coming out too fast to get a loop. then it occurred to me that there are two ends of the sampson post, and if i could get the line under one end, and feed it over to the other end i would hopefully have enough friction to stop it going through. whew! that worked, so i tied it all off in the pouring rain, and let the wind help me back to the cockpit and to the hatch. the storm raged, but the anchor and line held so that we could all enjoy the storm passing by. even owen seems to enjoy a good storm. he likes to lay under the dodger and watch while he stays mostly (but not completely) dry.
it's still drizzling. pam is enjoying a book, owen is out watching the rain, and i have finished watching the twins get their butts kicked by the indians on the iphone (technology... what can i say?).
tomorrow it's northward.