I didn’t do too much today, at least in the hours before noon; I charged the batteries, filled the dive tanks, cleaned away a bit of dust in the main cabin. Then I used the fast internet connection to browse the web and update my software for a while. At about 14:00 Stephen came by with the dinghy and we went ashore to get baguettes and some pastries. I kept the pastries in my fridge until Philaine, Michaela and Stephen came by for some coffee to go along with the sweets. They chose the exact moment that the first rains came over the hill and provided us with some much needed cleaning water. We ate and talked under the dodger while the rain came down, and they departed during a lull in the weather. A bit later the serious rain began and I was on deck, stripped to bathing shorts, with the brush and a large washcloth giving Zanshin a good scrubbing and cleaning while the free water from above came down. While I was cleaning the dolphins came back and were frolicking right at my bow but I didn’t think about going into the water as I felt that they were just passing through. When I realized that they were staying around I got my GoPro camera out and put on fins and mask, but by that time they’d gone far enough from my boat to make the trip to them and back a bit too far for my tastes, so I got back aboard and continued cleaning the decks and also the topsides. The rain was still coming down, albeit lightly, and the winds were still howling but I used my washdown system to wash the dirt and salt that had been released with the brush off the decks. I hadn’t washed the decks since I got the boat into the water and a lot of black and dark water was coming down the gunwales so the washdown hose was necessary to get all that dirt off the boat. I’ll see tomorrow (assuming the rains stop) if my efforts made the boat look better.
I needed a very hot shower after the cleaning work (the rains cooled the air, plus the wind chill of the gusts made it positively freezing on deck) and finally shaved the scratchy fuzz off my face as well. I won’t be going ashore tonight, but will fire up the barbie and grill some Merguez along with the afternoon baguette (filled with butter and freshly pressed garlic) for dinner tonight.
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