Those two Scotch Bonnets in yesterday’s spaghetti sauce caused some disruption of my intestinal tract during the night and I’ll have to remember how much of a spicy punch they carry when I next use them!
Today is relatively calm with just a couple of windy gusts coming through the anchorage, but it is cloudy and occasionally drizzling and it looks like it is going to remain this way all day. I took a quick paddle ashore to dispose of another garbage bag (the refuse containers provided have miniscule openings, so I just bring in a small bagful each trip) and get some exercise, then I motored to the next bay, Cinnamon Bay, to get a change of scenery and also to see if I could get any type of an internet connection with which to check the weather. No luck on the latter, unfortunately.
The wind is almost gone and the rain showers keep on coming over the hill and I know that I should get out the AwlWash and do the hull cleaning but somehow I can’t seem to get motivated. It is 14:00 now and I did clean off the rust marks from the anchor chain using some cleaner and the dinghy earlier and then did a bit of reading in the Nikon D7100 book and just turned on the computer in the hopes that some powerful and fast Wi-Fi signal mysteriously showed up (it didn’t, of course). The rain really is a welcome opportunity to clean the hull…
It is now 15:30 and it is still raining, but I’ve been busy the whole time and have just completed my chores outdoors and am enjoying a warming cup of coffee – despite what many might think with an outside temperature of 27°C it does get cold in the rain even when there’s no wind. My first chore was to clean the decks with a brush while the torrential rain was coming down; I got rid of a lot of dirt and rust flakes (from the chain) and even used the brush on the topsides. My initial plan was just to do this minimum of work but I was on a roll and knew an opportunity like this (constant light to medium rain, no wind, no waves) wouldn’t come again any time soon so I got the AwlWash out, diluted it appropriately and then did the starboard topsides from one end to the other; after applying the soap I used the deck wash down system to get the majority of soapy stuff off. I repeated this for the port side and then used a bucket of clean water and a rag to fully remove any residue of detergent from the topsides. Since it is still raining and looks like it won’t stop for a while I am sure that nature is doing the final job of softly removing or diluting any chemical left.
The whole time I was working on deck and from the dinghy I could hear thunder rumble in the distance and the few times I noted a flash of lightning somewhere in the skies there were at least 5 seconds between light and sound so I wasn’t worried about getting electrocuted, but just now there was only 1 second between thunder and lightning so I’ll just stay below decks for a while – I’m not worried about getting hit by lightning since the boat is a pretty good Faraday cage, but I’ll not tempt the fates too much more than necessary. I’m the only boat in Cinnamon Bay so my aluminum mast is a pretty tempting target…
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