We awoke to gray skies, rain, 17 – 20 knot winds with gusts of up to 28 knots, and white caps in the lagoon. The wind kept changing direction, too, so we were swinging all over the place. Supposedly, it was going to clear up this afternoon, and we were planning to leave as soon as it cleared up.

Christi still wasn’t feeling good, but she forced herself to finish cooking all the fruit in danger of going bad before we made it to Suwarrow. (Christi usually only prepares heat & serve food when we are at sea). Fortunately, she found some more coconut recipes in another cookbook we had on board. She made banana-coconut waffles from scratch for breakfast, which were good, but not as flavorful as anticipated. She also made puff pastries stuffed with a banana-coconut filling, using up the last of the ripe bananas. She didn’t actually bake the puffs we will bake them in the toaster oven for a hot dessert at sea. She grated and lightly toasted the last of the coconut so it would be ready for use in Suwarrow.

Meanwhile, Eric started getting Kosmos ready for sea. He pulled the inflatable dinghy out of the water. Getting it out of the water was tricky in the strong winds. We have to lift the dinghies up from the side of the boat, where the wind is blowing head onto the dinghy. Keeping the dinghy from flipping over as it is being lifter out of the water is not easy. He left it out to dry for a few minutes. When he went to deflate it and put it away, it had been blown onto the railings and was dangerously close to flying away. Not good. Losing the dinghy would have been bad.

By 1600 (4:00 pm), the wind was getting stronger and it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere. We had Kosmos mostly ready to go, but we hadn’t brought in our hard dinghy yet. We decided it was better to wait until the last minute to stow the dinghy just in case we needed to go to shore for any reason.

At close to 2200 (10:00 pm), we were ready to go to bed. As usual, Eric poked his head out the back to make sure all looked good. Uh oh. The dinghy had flipped over. This was not good. Eric pulled the dinghy in to where he could reach it, flipped it over. But there was things starting to float away! So he quickly jumped in the dinghy despite it being almost full of water and started gathering things. We normally keep the dinghy loaded with miscellaneous useful items. Fortunately, we had taken several things out, like the anchor. Most of what was still in the dinghy floated, and the most important items had gotten trapped under the hull when it flipped. Eric was able to retrieve the gas can and oars, which was a relief. Some flotation cushions blew away before Eric could retrieve them.

Christi handed Eric a large bucket and he bailed like crazy. Christi then pulled the dinghy over to the side of the boat, which was not easy as it was against the wind. Eric clipped the boom rigging to the dinghy and got out. As is our routine, Eric went up top and Christi stayed below. Christi helps guide the dinghy straight up until it is beyond her reach, then Eric takes over. Christi had to use a lot of force to keep the dinghy straight and from flipping over. A couple times the wind blew the dinghy under the back deck. Once it was up out of her reach, she ran to the top to help Eric. It was a bit of a struggle to get the dinghy situated properly with the 25-30 knot gusts of wind.

Once the dinghy was situated, we went through the rest of the routine of getting ready to go putting the dinghy cover on, stowing the stuff loose on the deck, switching the rigging from dinghy mode to paravane mode, etc. It was definitely more challenging with the wind, but all went fine. We are counting our blessings.

We could have lost both dinghies today from the wind. Then we’d be in a world of hurt. We could have lost the oars, which would be a big problem. The dagger board that helps steady the dinghy was unsecured and is now resting in peace somewhere at the bottom of the lagoon. The dagger board is probably our biggest loss, but we have spare wood aboard to make a temporary one. The real concern now is the outboard motor. In the morning, we will follow the submersion directions and hopefully it will be fine. So, when all was said and done, tonight’s little ordeal was not too bad, after all.

We did have a nice bright moon to help us see. Here it is rising above one of the smaller peaks.