Here we sit, rolling, mostly not horribly, in the wind and waves. The beach and island are tantalizingly close. Stocking Island provides protection from big waves being built up by the east wind but the winds themselves are high. There are actually some whitecaps on the water today but the waves are maximum a foot, the winds last night we’re pretty high. The shore is not as far away as it appears in the picture.
Bob didn’t have the nav instruments on last night as he was not concerned about the anchor dragging. If the instruments had been on he’d be able to see what the winds were last night, he figures the gusts hit into the 30s.
We had hoped to go to shore yesterday as there are walking trails and at least two restaurants/bars on the island. The issue for us is getting the dinghy motor down from the motor mount on the stern rail. The motor weighs 48 pounds and has a lifting strap which is used with the dinghy davit to get it to the back of the dinghy. The challenge is getting it from its solid mount to a bouncing dinghy. We did try yesterday but decided against it when we saw how much the dinghy was bouncing. By the way, rowing is not an option in these conditions. The current plan is to visit the island either on Friday or more likely Saturday when the forecasts have even the gusts below 20 knots. Bob said he’s glad we didn’t put the jib back up when he got here on Sunday afternoon, it reduces the windage a bit.
We are going to take a water taxi to George Town tomorrow to do a bit of grocery shopping and enjoy a drink and lunch on solid ground.
Meanwhile, we’ve been doing lots of reading and not nearly enough boat organizing/tidying – maybe today ?.