What? Pictures of navigation instrument panels are boring you say? Well, 50 knot winds on an anchored boat are so not boring. At least the anchor held and nothing else blew away.
Speaking of boredom, if there's anything worse than a multiple day passage it may be this: being stuck on a boat without actually making any progress. Did I mention that there are little boys aboard? The normal kind that jump all over the place and yell and wrestle.
Conrad did a little fishing yesterday and caught half a dozen baby sand sharks before one bit through his line and allowed us (thank goodness) to put an end to baiting hooks with the rankest smelling 3-week old shrimp ever. Despite the two inches of pressure washer type rain that fell overnight, the transom is still speckled with the vomit/poop (not sure which) from one of the sharks that threw-up/pooped all over Matt's hand while he was releasing it.
Yesterday the winds dropped a bit and the waves looked manageable, so we tried to visit a nearby island just to get some time off the boat. We made it into the dinghy, though it was choppy, and then got to the island only to discover that it is a Federally protected bird sanctuary and people are not allowed on it.
Disappointed, we turned around to head back to the boat and got completely soaked with salt water from the steep waves. We jumped onto the boat and started to raise the dinghy before it got too banged up from the waves. A slight sideways roll started the dingy swinging so wildly that Matt had to run down to the transom to stop it from banging against the boat. In the process of grabbing for a handhold, he impaled his finger with the giant tuna hook from the trolling line. There was screaming (like a girl). There was swearing (like a drunk sailor). I'm not judging--even if the kids added some new words to their vocabulary--it was totally justified. Fortunately the hook did not go in past the barb (probably because the bone stopped it) and Matt yanked it out and went back to the task of stopping the dinghy swing and getting it back on the davits.
To quell the throbbing finger, Matt took a couple of Ibuprofen. Despite all the "boat bites" that Matt has gotten, we realized that this was the first time in more than 6 months that he has had to take any pain medication. At least once a week while still working he'd take something to stamp out a headache. Also, he hasn't needed the heartburn medication that he used to take somewhat regularly and he has lost a few pounds. So overall, that's a fair lifestyle trade-off for bumping your head into the ceiling a couple times a day, right?
Related to the blog title, this video amused us (spending time in the South gets me this question a lot).
I'll say it again, at least we have internet. And Lego. We're hoping to get our weather window tomorrow.
And I thought if was a challenge to keep 2 young kids happy when we were camping at Montauk in the rain....at least we had a car to drive somewhere. What a disappointment when you discovered your "escape" was a protected bird sanctuary.
ReplyDeleteAnd Matthew, my finger throbs just thinking about your experience with the tuna hook.
Funny, the longer we're here the better it seems. I guess you just get used to anything. We have been finding things to occupy our time. Matt's finger is much better now...
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