Sailing with Nine of Cups

It's been hot and very humid for the past couple of days. Sometimes we get some sprinkles during the night, but you could say the days are almost liquid with humidity, palpable … except no real rain until today. There were torrential downpours during the night … the kind you expect in the tropics. They come on suddenly with a bit of wind to announce their arrival and then BAM. The heavens open up and empty all they've got, so that we can barely see the island or nearby boats. As quickly as the rains begin, they wear themselves out. The sun comes out for a few minutes, brilliant beams gleaming and reflecting off everything wet and soaked. The sky darkens again and the dark clouds gather together and the cycle begins once more. Judging from what I've read in the brochures, heavy rain during the days is not typical for the area, but then, those brochures were written by the marketing people who probably don't live here and are trying to promote tourism. Who wants rain on their vacation?

This is not a bad thing every once in awhile. Though David has swept the decks, there are still aluminum filings lurking here and there from his work on the whisker pole. A good, fresh water deck wash was definitely in order … thank you, Mother Nature. I've been using watermaker water for doing laundry. I'd rather keep watermaker water in the tank for future use on our upcoming passage, but dirty laundry has a way of piling up rather voluminously. The rainwater cistern ashore is empty from overuse by a full anchorage of yachties with an excess of dirty clothes to wash.

All through the night, I could hear water sloshing around in the dinghy where it's tied up just outside my porthole in the aft cabin. I kept thinking I'd have some rainwater for laundry. David's fastidious about wiping all the sand out of the dinghy when we go ashore, so I was imagining clear, soft rainwater and I wasn't disappointed. We have 5-gallon plastic, collapsible jugs aboard and I dug out a couple. In no time, I had them both filled and David provided two more. In all, 20 gallons of fresh water for laundry. Some items really only needed a fresh water rinse … those I just threw into the dinghy and let the dinghy motion take care of the agitate and rinse cycles. They'll hang on the line and rinse some more until the rain stops and the sun dries them … maybe tomorrow.

We have plenty of inside chores to do. There's all the usual cleaning, sweeping, meal prep, cooking, whipping of lines, checking on systems, writing blogs. And then, of course, there's napping. What better thing to do on a lazy, rainy day?