Shortly after we arrived it started blowing cranking up until we had a steady 20-25 knots with gusts over 30. The wind generator was making lots of electricity! There were periods of calm, but basically it blew through the night and it's still blowing this afternoon. The trades shifted to the NE right now which is why the wind is sneaking into this otherwise protected bay. Tomorrow the trades should shift back to E or even SE and calm should return.
When we first arrived we took the dinghy off the foredeck and had it tethered behind New Morning, but decided that since we weren't going to be going anywhere in the big wind we'd be lazy and not mount the outboard. When it was blowing very hard Fay asked me if the dinghy was safe and of course I assured her it was. Ten minutes later she looked out to see the dinghy was upside down and one oar was floating away! The second oar was caught up in the lifting harness underneath the dinghy and I was able to quickly retrieve it. Not wanting to loose our second oar, and despite the strong winds and pelting rain, we quickly mounted the 2HP outboard, raced towards the head of the bay and retrieved our runaway oar. Then our trusty 2hp pushed us right back through the big chop and wind and to New Morning where in consideration of the flipped dinghy we immediately unmounted the outboard and stored it safely on the pushpit. A little drama, a minor rescue and an excuse for a hot shower and a glass of wine!
Since it's still blowing today and we didn't want to fight the wind to go ashore we decided it would be a baking day. Fay made a batch of cherry chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and I'm baking two loaves of cinnamon raisin bread. Tomorrow we'll go ashore and do a big hike, nourished by a nice piece of cinnamon raisin bread toast for breakfast, and maybe a couple of cookies in the back pack.
