Hanging out in the storm

Hanging out in the storm   …   Sunday 28th October

It was a wet and windy night but not too bad - we never felt unsafe. One problem is that it' s really noisy, partly as a result of the wind blowing through the rigging but also because of the halyards banging on the mast. It doesn't seem to matter how hard we try to tie these away so they won't bang they always seem to end up making some noise. In the middle of the night I went out again to try and solve the problem, without much success, and this morning we re-worked it so they were tied away at different angles. So far this seems to have helped. We spent the day hanging out on the boat and then this afternoon over in the club house watching the Patriots. We, along with two other couples, were invited round this evening for "panninis" with a lovely couple called Carl and Chris. They have a fantastic custom built 53ft Shannon motor sailor and spend 10 days sailing then leave the boat where they are and return home for 20 days. It's fascinating to hear different peoples stories. Walter and Donna, a dentist and teacher from Ontario Canada, bought an Island Packet in the Chesapeke area and are now cruising for a year. Bill and Laura used to live in Bangor Maine but got fed up of the long winters and now live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. They are heading south in their trawler and for them this is their return journey having spent the summer up north. We had a great evening with lots of fine food and wine. The wind has now moved more to the north west and seems to have picked up in strength. We are hoping the storm doesn't cause too much damage and misery up north. No photos today - everything was just too damp and miserable to take out the camera.

Mike