What Next?
05 April 2010 | Hog Cay, Jumentos
Beth / ENE 18 - 20, sunny during the day, chilly at night
We have a couple of funny stories to relate.
Jim and I invited Marilyn and Bruce over for dinner on Sunday evening, and encountered a difficulty or two. We enjoyed a drink and an appetizer (egg salad and crackers because those devilish eggs fell apart when I tried to devil them and make them all pretty). Although the wind was blowing mightily, we thought maybe we could BBQ the pork chops, but that didn't work as planned either and they weren't cooking because the wind blew out the BBQ.
Just as I decided we had better put them in the oven to finish, Bruce remarked that we seemed to be sitting differently from the other boats. We all peered out and noted that not only were we sitting differently, we were farther away from the other boats. Just about that time, Glen (Dot's Way) called on the radio to let us know he had noticed it too and wanted to alert us. How could this be? We'd been here since Thursday morning! Such are the vagaries of anchors, sand and wind.
Our company kindly agreed that dinner would have to wait. I threw the pork chops in the oven along with the left over macaroni and cheese, fired up the engine and Jim raised the anchor that was dragging along the sand at quite a good pace. As dusk was falling, we re-anchored - twice in fact, because the first time we ended up too close to Dot's Way and had to do it all over again. By the time we got settled down, the sun had set and the wind was really whistling around so we moved our place settings inside, dined hurriedly on a very un-fancy Easter Dinner of pork chops and pasta (skipping salad and dessert entirely) and said good bye to our guests. They climbed into their bucking and bouncing dinghy (successfully!) and returned home to Reflection.
Speaking of successfully entering dinghies, let us move on to Monday night.
Glen and Dorothy (Dot's Way) and Jim and I were treated to a lovely dinner on Reflection. After a fine repast (chicken marsala, mashed potatoes and salad) and many good cruising stories, it was time to go home - again with the wind blowing and the dinghies bouncing. Glen and Dorothy climbed down the ladder, got in their dinghy and departed. Jim climbed down the ladder and got in our dinghy. I climbed down the ladder and ... almost got in our dinghy!
I had one foot in, and, holding the flashlight in one hand and the ladder in the other, was about to put down my other foot when the dinghy lurched - or I lurched - or something - and I ended up with my left leg in the dinghy, my right arm on the ladder and just about everything else in the water! I did manage to hand Jim the flashlight as I tried to decide how to extricate myself from this ridiculous position. Bruce said afterward that I kept looking back and forth from dinghy to ladder as if I was trying to decide where to go, and that was exactly the case. Amid laughs and sighs, I finally opted to get both legs into the dinghy and let go of the ladder while Jim grabbed my arm and hauled me in. Fortunately all that was damaged was my ego - but it sure made for good jokes for the next couple of days! This picture shows how it is supposed to be done. I declined Bruce's invitation to do it again so we could take pics!!
All our anchorage mates are waiting to see what will happen next! Don't things come in threes?