Friday, November 28 — It was an interesting sunrise. The clouds mostly blocked the colors, but wherever there was a gap in the clouds, the colors were vivid.

There had been a little bit of rain overnight. It was a gloomy morning. The wind was at 12 – 15 knots and the anchorage was quite rocky. It never failed to surprise us at how little fetch it took for wind waves to form. Unlike Thursday, there wasn’t much boat traffic. It seemed most boaters had hunkered down for the windstorm. The temperature was warm enough for shorts in the morning, but as the day progressed, it cooled down. By the late afternoon, we were wearing sweaters. Due to the thick cloud cover, the solar panels only produced 1/3 of the electricity that they normally generated.

The rocking made us sluggish, so it was a very mellow day onboard. In the afternoon, the kids from Tiki Tour came over for a while. Then Keith went over to their boat for a while. We had no desire to go to shore as it would have been difficult to deal with the dinghy at the dinghy dock. 

On Saturday, Christi was up for the day at 0330 because it was so noisy that she couldn’t sleep. The wind generator sounded like an engine and something was clacking in the wind. We’ve mentioned before that the wind generator was usually quiet, but at just the right wind speed and angle, it did sound like an engine running. Usually, Eric was the one who couldn’t sleep when the wind generator made the engine-like noise.

The sunrise was completely blocked by clouds. When it was light, we saw that there had been a rain overnight. When Eric got up in the morning, he identified that the paravane line was making the clacking noise and secured it with a bungee. The wind was screaming at 22-knots and the wind generator was making at least 250 watts, maybe even 300. The electricity from the wind generator was much needed since the solar panels weren’t producing much with all the clouds.

Eric took advantage of the cool weather to get into the lazarette. He filled the dive tanks and adjusted the water heater back down. Both tasks involved a lot of bending and twisting. He was careful and had Christi help with some of the tasks that required twisting. He was pleased to report that he did not re-injure his back. 

Eric and Keith went to shore with the other three families. They met at the dock at The Jib Room.

Since they were going against the wind and waves, It was a wet ride into shore. The goal was to find a beach. They walked east for about half a mile before they realized the closest beach was too far of a walk.

Instead, they walked down to the sea wall of a partially developed lot along the shore, but they didn’t linger long because the sea spray was out of control.

After the walk, everyone went back to the Jib Room for drinks. Christi had stayed aboard to make dinner. Eric and Keith said their goodbyes when it was time to return to Kosmos to eat. The ride back was much calmer and drier than it had been the opposite direction. It was yet another quiet night aboard.