More wind
24 August 2011 | Suwarrow Atoll
Bill Hudson
As expected, the wind continued through the night for another rollie time. I was again "sleeping" in the main salon keeping watch on the drag alarm up in the cockpit. To make Tracy's night sleep better, I tied down the propeller blades on our DuoGen so it was silent through the night instead of sounding like a plane coming in to land. Being in the salon, I was treated to all the normal creaks and groans and clunks that happen as Zephyr moves at anchor. To sleep in a noiseless surrounding would be strange anymore. One thing about Suwarrow is that there are no roosters crowing at all hours of the day and night. We've come to expect it in every anchorage we visit. Sometimes, they throw in dogs barking for more entertainment through the night. Since the forecast was for more and stronger wind, we made sure to have the cockpit clear as well as the fabric panels that cover the windows of the dodger were removed so we could see if necessary. We made it through the night just fine and I'll be diving on the anchor again in a few minutes just to make sure (again) that all is well down below the water line. I've been down to visit it every day and some times twice a day since we got here and there has been no movement of the anchor since we dropped it. The chain on the other hand has shifted all over the place and the wind shifts Zephyr all around the anchorage. All the rest of the boats are doing the same thing so we know where we are in relationship to the others when we look out the windows or from the cockpit during the day or night. Ideally, we'd love the wind to be coming from the east or northeast so it would blow over the island and we would have less swell, but out here, you take what you get. I did make another "snubber" line for the anchor chain incase one of the ones that we already have in place should break.
This morning, we had another "class" on refrigeration on boats. We'd had one on engines several days ago. It was held on a big 60 foot catamaran called Sete Mares. A beautiful boat that hardly rocks at all in the swell. It lasted for three hours and was interesting to see what types of frigs everyone had and the different types that are available. With ten of us there, one other boat has the same (Cool Blue by Technautic) that we have. Dave off Soggy Paws acted as the moderator and instructor with each of us adding our own experiences as the class continued. Ours isn't keeping the food as cold as we like so I may have to speed up the compressor and see if that helps. I did offer to have a "class" on Caring for Teak" and that I would supply all the brushes and teak oil to work on our boat. No one seemed interesting in the class unless it would be at their boat instead of mine. Oh well, I tried.
It's still blowing in the high teens to low 20s and is expected to continue for the next few days. So here we sit and here we stay.