Rainy day fun and games

16º 27.040s 145º 22.037w

Tue Jul 02 2019

We’re having a Mara’maru right now – so there are some sunny days, and then there are days with a good bit of rain. Fuzzy, poor visibility, undefined ceiling, the kind of days that when encountered at the drop zone or when hoping to go flying, the better use of time was generally “let’s go find a craft brewery and tell some lies”. Being English from birth, American by naturalization, Isabel just can’t shake that typical English observation about the weather. “It’s miserable out there” says she when seeing these conditions. I’m a bit more optimistic, electing to think that it won’t be too bad in a wetsuit. Up at 0520 this morning, we’re guzzling coffee to fortify ourselves for our 0700 – 0900 kite surfing lesson. This particular day might rival what good friend Rob Whitton recently experienced when mountain biking in Scotland for 5 days.

One of the things we do while waiting out cruddy weather is to watch old TV show series or movie or whip out our kindles and read. Cruisers often swap movies, e-books, and music; our pal Randy Fraser on SV Free Luff refers to newer movies as “cruiser crack”. Recently we got a copy of the old HBO series “Band of Brothers” which was highly lauded at the time it hit the cable TV waves. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg produced the six-part mini-series based upon the book of the same name by Stephen E. Ambrose. There’s no doubt this is quality entertainment.

While I consider myself a cultural infidel, film is an artform that I really can connect with and appreciate. Band of Brothers is an amazing piece of work, and I wish dad and I could have watched it together. He wasn’t a volunteer in the 101st Airborne, rather a draftee in WWII, but he served with the Red Arrows in the Philipines and saw action as part of a trio who operated a Browning water cooled 30 calibre machine gun. It was something dad rarely talked about, but after the war he never went deer hunting again.

I’ve always loved movie sound tracks, but with Band of Brothers of special note is the use of human voices, an impressive chorale accompanying the orchestra. The chorale which really adds depth and emotional impact, and when paired with the visual stimulation it’s quite moving. The credits at the end of each episode include a similar arrangement but the human voices are missing. It’s really quite amazing what a different impact the piece has, and I’m still wondering just what composer Michael Kamen is trying to communicate. Hopefully my dear friend William Prokes, a brilliant young professional violinist back in the day, can offer enlightenment next time our paths cross.

Our pals John and Becca on SV Halcyon are a professional photographer and journalist, respectively. When commenting about the impression the mini-series had on me, John noted the book is even better. Fortunately it’s now loaded on my kindle and will likely offer entertainment during this drizzly day, as our kite boarding lesson appears to be at least postponed if not canceled. The wind is forecast to be a bit light this morning, and it’s funny to see all the boats in the anchorage simply drifting around as the current rain shower seems to have crushed the wind. Many boats moved closer to shore yesterday to reduce fetch; it’s going to start blowing later today and may howl up into the 40s tonight. We’re all dug in with pretty good separation; it’ll be an interesting test of our ground tackle. We’ve never drug in a howling wind -but this one will likely be 5 – 10 knots more than we’ve experienced to date.

How to optimize the day? How about a SUP workout while it’s dead flat and just drizzling a little? That complete, bag and stow the boards in the rails (the bag is to keep Mr. Sun from dissolving them, as they are PVC. Police up any loose lines then check the jib sheet and jib furler security. Imagine the jib unfurling in 40 knots – that would be both exciting and create some expensive rags. Pull down on the anchor while observing the chain floats, then realize the chain must have gotten fouled on a bommie while we were drifting about during the no wind/variable current night and morning. Grab the mask snorkel fins and clear it, then pull again at max rpm to convince ourselves we’re anchored securely. Dive the anchor and chain once more to verify nothing is amiss. Now we’ve done our best, and we can only hope those around us do the same.

Now’s a good time to look at the boat structure and ponder the optimal rain catchment system. No need to run the water maker when it’s raining so much, unfortunately our years sailing in Mexico didn’t provide experience with rain water collection. Now it’s easy to see what surface area we’ve got to work with, which way the water wants to run, and what parts of the surface should not be used to collect water as they can remain “unclean”. The soft cockpit tops under the smaller solar panels are almost impossible to keep clean, and the last thing we need is contaminated water. The only smart thing to do is to collect water in jugs then after inspection pour it into the boat’s fresh water tank. Looks like the massive stern solar panels are the hot ticket, as each is 41” x 81” and they stay extremely clean in this environment due to the frequent rain and no place overhead for birds to roost. There’s still the odd bit of bird crap from the odd flyover bombing run, so we’ll have to keep an eye out but we’re converging on a solution.

We developed, then recently discovered a leak in our fresh water tank, only by chance when filling up the tank to prepare for this blow. Turns out a bit over 350 liters, perhaps around 475 liters, finds its way out of a new crack in the top of the tank lower section. It’s a known Seawind 1160 problem, and one that we’ll now have the pleasure of correcting. Our pals on SV Shamal and SV Talisker have both had some experience with this issue, and they’ve been kind enough to supply us with factory instructions and photographs which we’ll collect back in internet land. That ought to give us something to do when we arrive in Tahiti – thank goodness – thought we might be bored.

As we’ve been told by Joe and Karin of SV Flying Sideways more than once, cruising is “fixing your boat in exotic places”.