strangely, our Internet connectivity is worse in here, so less
frequent updates will be posted.
It blew pretty good today but it's still very warm and sunny out. We
moved into the marina not because of the wind, however, but because
we had some chores that are easier to do dockside and errands more
convenient to accomplish on land.
The wind did provide Mandy with her one major amusement of the
morning, however. Before we were ready to haul anchor and head to
the marina, the dinghy had to be hauled in and stowed on the foredeck
(they charge by the foot!). Leaving her below doing something, I
went up to take care of the task myself. As has been previously
mentioned, our dinghy is a smallish inflatable raft, and doesn't
weigh any great amount... easy for one man to handle, or so I thought.
I led the raft by its painter up alongside the bow and hoisted it up
over the lifelines without issue. Once I got it on deck, though, I
needed to have it lay flat so I could lash it down through the rails
on either side of the cabin top. Because of the wind, this proved
difficult, and the raft kept popping up on me before I could get the
line fed through and secured. I relied on holding it with one hand
and paying the line through with the other, a tedious process.
Suddenly, a ripping gust came up, and caught under the lip of the
raft. It stood the raft upright, slammed it against me, and sent the
both of us cascading rather unexpectedly over the port side lifelines.
I found myself holding on with one hand to the boat, the other to the
raft painter, with my left foot tangled up in the lifelines. I
thought for about half a second about trying to haul myself back up
over the side, but I was pretty far gone and didn't want to let go of
the raft. Also, I knew that the swim ladder was down, so I figured
that was the more dignified option. So, I untangled my foot, let go,
and made a small splash.
I quickly realized, though, that holding onto the raft could be a bad
idea... the wind would catch it and turn it into a sail, and tow me
off down the channel like a windsurfer. So, I tossed the painter
back up deck and hoped it would tangle in something long enough for
me to get back aboard and grab it. Unfortunately, by this time Mandy
had heard the whole commotion and she was waiting for me at the swim
ladder as I swam around. I had been planning on avoiding mentioning
the whole thing, but as it developed this would have been
impracticable simply due to the fact that I was soaking wet.
Mandy retrieved the raft and I changed and then we hauled anchor
(against the wind; an arduous task) and came in to the marina.
Here, we have been thwarted in at least two of the three tasks we had
set out for ourselves, making it a rather pointless expenditure; we
haven't been able to find the hardware we need for our sail at the
chandlery in town, nor a replacement for the electrical outlet that
is out. So, Mandy has been cleaning the boat most of the day, and I
have been laying around, waylaid by a headache that doesn't have
anything to do with falling overboard, I am sure. We have run other
small errands and will do laundry before we leave, which will
probably happen tomorrow around noon.
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