Stir Crazy
Dealing with sustained winds of 25-30 knots and occasional gusts a bit higher, we have been pretty much confined to our boat for the past two days. This is making even me a bit stir crazy let alone Rebecca. At one point yesterday afternoon, after deciding that we had had enough, we dropped our dinghy into the water with the intention of running across to the nearby boat ramp so that we could go for a walk on shore.
Here comes a lesson for those reading: when the weatherman says that there is a “small craft advisory” in effect and that “smaller vessels should remain in port,” they mean dinghies too! The ride over to the shore was a bit wet but it’s when we arrived at the ramp that things really got stupid. Unfortunately, the boat ramp was on the downwind side of the pond we are in and even as protected as this place is, there is enough fetch that the waves had built up to ugly status. Our dinghy was getting bashed onto the ramp and the rocks and there was just no way we could leave it there without it getting trashed.
Bailing from this predicament was, in itself, going to prove challenging though. We needed to get back in the boat, get the engine running and away from shore, all before the waves smashed us back onto the rocks. Did we get it done? Yes. Was it pretty? No, but it was no doubt entertaining for anyone close enough to see what was going on. The stupidest part of all this is that we didn’t even have our PFDs on through this whole debacle. Just fifteen minutes after departing, we returned to our boat, soaked, cold and still without any time on shore. Oh well. Chalk up another win for Mother Nature.
Here is a funny side story to this though. Earlier in the day, while adding some gasoline into our Honda Generator, a wind gust caught our funnel and knocked it overboard. In the time that it took me to debate whether or not to jump in the water after it, the wind and waves had taken it too far away. Later, while attempting to free ourselves from our getting-smashed-on-the-boat-ramp predicament, we looked over and found our funnel waiting right there for us to pick it up, just like a naughty puppy might do after running away to play for a bit. Bad funnel!
Oh, to add insult to injury, the free internet that we had been enjoying the past few days unceremoniously disappeared. No warning, just gone. You can just imagine how well that development went over with me!*
Not having internet did leave me more time to practice how to play “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” on my Uke though.
C – Em – F – C – F – E7 – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – G – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – G – Am – F
C – G – Am – F
C – G – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – G – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – E7 – Am – F – G – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – E7 – Am – F – G – C – F – C
G – C – G – C
Am – Em – Am – Em – Am – Em – F – G
C – Em – F – C – F – C – E7 – Am – F – G – C – F – C
C – G – Am – F
C – G – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – G – Am – F
C – Em – F – C – F – C – G – Am – F
Sounds great, doesn’t it? 😉
The boat ramp where our dinghy almost died. You can see ZTC in the background.
Before the weather turned really ugly,
Rebecca was able to burn off a bit of energy dancing on the bow.
*This was posted via paid internet!
Wow, the picture does not tell the story … it looks so calm! At least you killed some time fighting the wind and then going back to dry off and warm up. =) Hey, and you found your funnel, too. Not so stupid! Can’t wait to explore through ya’ll!
The photo wouldn’t tell the story as it was taken a couple of days ago before the front arrived. The water was calm on that day. Yesterday we never really made it out of the water.
Don’t you guys like to just sit in a local bar all day and get drunk?
Yes, occasionally we do. I think we are overdue for that as a matter of fact. Tonight is New years Eve though. 🙂
OK – looks like we all need to hit that “donate” button. You’re so funny, especially when you are bored. Is anyone else anchored where you are?? One of my New Year’s resolutions is to try and sorta, really sorta get my body looking like Rebeccas. Thanks for todays posting, we were going thru withdrawal!
I wish “MY” body looked like Rebecca’s (the abs anyway)!
Maybe it’s just fated. Our first big offshore was to cross Biscay, and after we’d done that and recovered we holed up in a little river mouth to wait out the predicted gales off Cap Finisterre, well known for very ugly seas. It really, really blew. We could hear the Tall Ships racing up the Portuguese and Spanish coasts talking about the punishment they were getting. So we were happy to stay put. It took 14 days to pass. And for the first 6 (that’s six!) days and nights we didn’t dare go ashore.
We were really going crazy. Eventually we did it (food, internet, someone else’s face), only to deal with 37 knot winds and surf everywhere to get back to RG. We know our dinghy and 2.3hp outboard can take the punishment, Pip did quite a bit of boat maintenance, and I got a lot of writing done during that fortnight!
Sounds like some good stories there!
They probably got pissed at you eating their bandwidth with Skype. Skype video=huge bandwidth=pissed off network owners and other users. Bad skype! Bad!!
hehe… perhaps you’re right.
Well, the attempt wasn’t ENTIRELY without profit. You DID find your funnell!! 🙂
Exactly, and you can not have too many funnels on a boat (I read that somewhere).
Hope things are improving now. Weather crises all over it seems-even winds so high in Maine that 3 chairs blew off ski chairlift with people on them! Pretty calm up here and all family got safely home. We need snow now!
Aaack! Three chairlifts blew off???
I want some of that girls enery. I usually dance between the bed sheets, scary photo.
Your aqua water photos have a luring quality.
“Dance between the bedsheets”… LOL. I’m not sure exactly what that means.
Its one of those “learning curves” hope not to much damage done to any thing, & you say you were starting to go stir crazzzzzzeeeeee after 2 days ? this early in the trip “sorry cant belive it ” 🙂
Yes, long ocean passages might not be in the cards for us. Who knows.