Oh, what a windy, rainy day!
07 March 2017 | Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands
Bill/ Blowing like stink!
It's not a nice day outside with blowing winds and rain off and on most of the day. Woke up to it and it's still going on at 1600. Pity the passengers on the Norwegian Escape cruise liner in port today. Sure hope they got issued raincoats of some type. The ones that booked shore excursions really got taken as I'm sure no one went on them with the weather the way it is today. We've had winds all day in the high teens gusting into the low 40 knots so it's nasty out there. We've seen a few dinghies but darn few. Last night, the boat that's in front of us put out his fenders on both sides just incase he broke free. Kept his dingy floating off the stern as an extra cushion. They sat out in the cockpit watching us pull Puffs outboard into it's brackets on the stern and a few minutes later, hoist her on deck. We've done it so many times over the last 8 years, it's like a choreographed dance with the two of us. We each know what to do and when to do it with straps and lines and locks. We wait till the wind is over the opposite side of the boat and then pull like heck and get her on deck before it switches to the other side. With straps and rope, she's fine on deck but can really get loaded with rain as the day passes. I've already bailed her once today.
With the wind blowing, we spent the day inside. Cleaned the filter for the shower sump(boy what fun)filter and then checked and refilled all out batteries with distilled water. We ended up running the engine instead of the generator as there was never a long enough time during the day of dry weather that would allow us.
We had a nice lunch and then played a long game of Mexican Train to help pass the time. With this front coming through, poor Tracy has a nasty headache and retired to the bed to see if she could get it to pass. It's supposed to be like this(less the rain) for the next week so we will have to plan our jobs on deck accordingly.
It's now just after 2100 and the winds and sprinkles have continued. We've been hit by gusts that lay poor Zephyr over enough that the wood cutting board for the stove falls over where we leaned it against a wall in the galley. We're swinging back and forth from gust to gust. Our neighbor boat that added fenders on their sides pulled up their anchor in the middle of the afternoon and motored over to the marina. Not sure why but we watched them take off the outboard from the dinghy and then physically pull their dinghy on board over the side. No crane or lines to help get it on deck. The three men on board just muscled it on board where they tied it down and took off once the anchor was up. Darn few people zipping around on their dinghies as the winds are just to strong plus there is enough swell coming through the bay that there is no way you would stay dry.
We had a great lunch of tuna with chopped onion covered in cheese and heated on a slice of bread. We'd started the engine to get power to the microwave to heat up the meal so the cheese would melt. A nice warm lunch as with the wind, it feels darn right cold outside.
Once done, we played a nice game of Mexican Train dominoes to while away the afternoon. With all this winds, we can't get any of the above deck chores done and that's where the majority of jobs are so if it's a good bit drier tomorrow, we can get back to work.
It's going to be a long, noisy night if it keeps up like this. The anchor drag alarm program on the IPad I booted up when we came in shows that we haven't move at all but are swinging back and forth on the end of our anchor chain. I still go forward every now and then, especially if we hear any noise out there.
The picture today is one of my sons drone photos showing Diamond Cay off Jost Van Dyke. We're the dark blue boat with a blue mast if that helps.