MAY 5

May 5, 2015

Today was an awesome day. We woke up to brilliant sunshine and discovered that we hadn’t moved at all during what the net said would be high winds. I was nervous because most of the boaters had moved into Red Shanks, a “hole” on the main island where everybody goes in a storm.  We have been preparing for this “Tropical Depression” HOWEVER…

Today we spent an amazing four hours [had NO intention of taking up that much of his time!] with Stephane getting the BEST lessons in weather and sailing that we have ever had! Stephane has an excellent way of explaining weather and how to read it that makes sense. He was able to present it in such a way that all the trivial bits of information I had stored elsewhere in my brain all came together and the lightbulb was 250Watts! I learned so much that I didn’t know and was amazed to find that I knew enough to be able to understand the explanations.

[And he didn’t know it but he has been the thermometer for us…if Stephane is content to sit at anchor here, so are we!] He told us what websites to read; he gave us programs that will help understand what the weather says, and my personal favourite… “How to escape from a tropical storm” He also explained why the depression that was supposed to form, didn’t…and he was right!! I feel 100% better about being on the water with this knowledge.

He also told us we should get a spinnaker for our boat because it would let us sail more and if we can find on before we leave he will show us how to fly it.  YAY! He is an encyclopedia of sailing!!  I have a notebook full of drawings now to explain how to run with the wind, what kind of wind direction we need to sail effectively and when we should stay put and  “go fish or snorkel”     MERCI BEACUCOUP, STEPHANE!

So after wasting his day, we came back to the boat and after lunch we took the dinghy to the beach, rolled it over and scrubbed it. Tomorrow we are going to try to get some sort of contraption arranged to lift it onto the back deck so we can sail faster. We are probably losing a knot [1 mph] by dragging it. That may not sound like much, but when your top speed is 5 mph that’s a 20% reduction is speed.

Tomorrow I am also going in to help in the school while Rick assembles the required bits to make a dinghy haul-out rig.

After we cleaned the dinghy we went for  swim around the boat and saw the biggest star fish ever! He didn’t feel very flexible so we wondered if he was dead. E put hi back upside down and went away for a bit. When we came back he had turned himself over so he wasn’t dead. So beautiful alive!

The sky is clouding over again and it is dead calm so the mosquitoes are out. Yes,  it’s spring here and you know what that means!!