Friday Nov 7

Friday Nov 7.

Well, not a lot of headway today. The winds were gusting up to 40km and even the big boats stayed on the dock...well, most of them. The Oceans of Hope left this morning early, but they were heading north so the south wind was just what they needed. Later on the 65 footer, Oasis was preparing to take off and asked us to help him with his lines. There were three guys and a girl on board, [missed the extra guy yesterday] all probably under or around 30yrs old, but I have to say that, except for the fact that she was anxious to get to Barbados to get warm, she didn’t look too enthused about going out in this.

We helped them launch...ok, we untied the lines. Their twin bow thrusts launched them. The other big boats and us little guys decided we were quite happy paying for another day at the dock. Today I cleaned one of the water tanks out and we will fill it before we leave. I vacuumed and washed the galley floor, clean out the pantry. Rick sucked the water out of the bilges and put in a bolt to haul up the dinghy.

The boat across from us with the flapping sails still has not been attended to and it’s heartbreaking to watch $6,000.00 worth of sails shred. One of the yard crew went over and opened the small sail which stopped it flapping but didn’t help. It is going to roll over onto the next boat if the gusts get worse. It already has worn a hole in the sail since yesterday. He only thing stopping it from completely rolling is the post separating the slips.  Can’t imagine what that’s done to the port side of the boat. It’s a smaller version of the sailboat in “Captain Ron”.

As an aside, I have never seen so many sailors wearing jeans!! When I  taught S & R [search and rescue...not Susan & Rick] and Basic sailing,we were told jeans would kill you in the water. They soak up water and you sink like a stone, and they never dry when they get wet. Brrr! 

 

By the way, in case anybody besides Liz and Geoff care, there are wind turbines here at the casino sites. I’m guessing that they must be efficient because I don’t know of any casino that would deliberately back an unprofitable venture, and they sure do use a lot of power for their light shows!

Crap! Another 60 foot power boat just parked in front of us and we were going to pull forward so we could fill out water tanks! Oh well... maybe we can use his hoses. The dock water is shut off and everyone is sharing hoses today. I just didn’t get the tanks cleaned out fast enough.[this one is called Enchantress  from Palm Beach FL. I assume he’ going that way!]

Not sure what we are going to do tonight I don’t want to go for dinner but neither do I want to cook. Rick has gone for a shower but there’s no hot water in the female heads on the dock and I would have to use the public washroom. I might go later. The sun is going down and it’s time to close the doors to keep in the sun-made heat.  

We will leave at 8 am tomorrow and hope to get all the way to Cape May, 35 miles. The winds and the waves are supposed to be favourable so we should get some distance.

May not have internet for a day or two depending where we set down, so don’t panic. We don’t have to call coast guard anymore unless we change states either! Bonus!!  You can tell by today's pics how changeable the sky was, also the winds.

They're off!

Poor boat!

Low tide check post height!