Monday, December 06, 2010
The wind had died down completely overnight and the only sound was the occasional bumping of the buoy against the hull; the boat didn’t seem to be moving at all. I made a eggs and bacon breakfast to go with the coffee and found out that the gas and smoke detectors not only work but are very, very loud. The one in the salon went off first and I finally removed it and put in on deck to cool down. But then the one in the aft cabin went off and I had to move it to a safer place. I promise, I didn’t burn the bacon… The day’s sail was a great introduction back into sailing, with little waves (apart from when I went offshore to avoid tacking too often going north to Virgin Gorda). I had purchased 30 feet of synthetic floating dinghy line and, of course, it slipped and I lost the dinghy in the middle of the Sir Francis Drake Channel. It took some time and sweat to drop the sails, turn on the engine and motor back to pick up the dinghy. Luckily the new lines float so all I needed to do was pick up the end with a boat hook and I was ready to head off again. I anchored off Prickly Pear island in the north sound just in time to see a nice sunset and a Sunsail charter boat anchored next to me and put up an anchor ball – that was the first time that I’d seen anyone apart from mega yachts put up a day shape (perhaps they saw mine and decided to emulate my good behaviour or they were a training class vessel and the instructor forced them to hoist the day shape).
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