2023-06-26 Working from Paradise

After missing several days at work last week, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I’m now working from paradise. I began work just as the sky was brightening. The weather report last night had shown no rain at all in the forecast, so I’d left a hatch open to provide some cooling ventilation. It hadn’t rained, but just drizzled for a while. That meant that I’d not heard it come down and the floor beneath the hatch was soaked in the morning. Lesson learned – deal with the warm air at night.

Morning

Just a couple of minutes before a conference call I got a message from Mark saying that one of the few mooring balls had just freed up. I couldn’t take advantage at the time, but after the meeting I saw that it was still free!

So I turned on the engine, fired up the instruments and prepared my mooring line. Then, as I was about to lift the anchor, a big catamaran zipped by me. And headed right for that last mooring ball. You snooze, you lose…

I’ve rationalized away my missed opportunity by looking at the charts and determining that the mooring location is right at the 6 foot depth line. Which isn’t enough for my 8.5 feet draft. My anchoring spot is a bit further out, but I’m comfortable enough here. Moving in to the mooring would have made me feel better about not damaging the bottom with my anchor and chain. But since I’m in sand, that explanation doesn’t quite pass muster.

Noon

I’m still at work, but looking longingly out the porthole at Sandy Island and wishing I could go ashore there.  But I’ve still got at least 2 hours of work to do before I can shut down and start living the cruising life. Mark just responded and confirmed that I’d have run aground had I tried to take the other mooring.

Afternoon

I finally made it ashore to walk around and enjoy the soft sand on the island. I wish I’d brought a cooler, as I wanted to stay ashore rather than return to the boat. At least working from paradise means the commute isn’t very long.