Water bored

Three days or more of horizontal rain and whipping winds kept me sealed in this plastic tub, gasping for fresh dry air and some sunshine. It could have been longer, but my brain was mush by the end of the day Thursday. When Deb arrived home from work I was ready to go somewhere, anywhere that would take me off this vessel for a while. We ran to the car, and found a nice Irish pub to relax in. This may not have been the best choice, as it was a typical dark wood pub with minimal lighting. The food and beer were tasty, and we stayed for trivia night, which was a blast. Deb and I are not good at trivia, but we managed to hang in there at the top for a while. Always go with your first answer! What California vegetable has a crown and a heart? I wrote artichoke, crossed it off and wrote avocado. What the hell? My brain was so waterlogged that our answers became comical to the MC after a while. I really needed that escape. Too soon, it was time to head back to the washing machine.

There was a low pressure system stalled over us for many days, and you would not believe the amount of rain that fell. If anyone tells you not to bother with a cockpit enclosure, don't listen. It was the only way to get  out of the stuffy cabin without getting soaked. Saturday we sat in the cockpit listening to tunes well into the night, with the rain pounding the canvas and the boat at a 5 degree heel. We were nice and dry and having a good time. We had a wind gust that night of 62 knots!

The whole time we were getting pounded, both Debra and I were imagining this at anchor. Yikes! We've been in some squalls before while on the hook, and have had a few scary moments, but it's not the anchor set, or other boats dragging down on us that we were thinking about. Those storms came and went pretty quickly. We were thinking about being locked up on the boat for three or four days of hellish weather with no real place to go to escape it. At the dock we have power if we need it. At anchor, with many days of no Sun, we would be running the Honda to keep us topped off. That means power conservation, which also means no electronic entertainment. No movies, games, music, etc.  We would have to break out card and board games I guess. There is always some naked fun, but filling three to four days would be...
quite an accomplishment for fifty somethings. Hell, twenty somethings would get a trophy for that. Books, bring lots of books.

There are always projects to be worked on, and rainy days like this seem like an appropriate time to accomplish something. Well, after the first day I started to get bored with projects. Maybe it was the feeling like I was working on a submarine in the North Atlantic. I would do a little something, then check the weather. A little something. Check the weather. I started organizing, which is what I do when projects are stalled for the day, or because I don't have the energy to do much, but still feel guilty just laying around.

The morning walk to the facilities was interesting. By the time I got there and back I was completely soaked through. No way I'm wearing complete foulies just to take the Browns to the SuperBowl. At least I learned to wear as little as possible when venturing out and back. The second morning I had a bathing suit under a jacket with flip flops. Cold? Yes, but when I got back I didn't have to peel off layers of wet clothes. Guys, always make sure your shorts are longer than your jacket. Not an issue for the ladies, but guys look like pervs. Just saying. We have a guy in the area we call shorty shorts. He wears the 1960's version of gym shorts all the time. Add a nice foul weather jacket to the ensemble, and it looks like he's ready to flash his birthday suit at you.

When the Sun finally came out Sunday afternoon, we scrambled out of our sarcophagus, and ran to the public market. We needed to see people, sunshine and bright colors. We also needed to pick up some fresh veggies to provide some much needed energy. After the market we drove up to Fernandina Beach and found a table near the shore at Sliders Grille. We savored a Margarita in the Sun, with the ocean in view, and the band playing some island tunes. Ahh.

Cheers!
P