Day 9:
Father's Day!!!
I woke up and read the card that Pam had snuck into my duffle bag. James wrote on the card and maybe it was the message combined with being away that brought a tear to my eye. We had another great breakfast courtesy of Greg.
I decided to risk the financial penalty and turned my blackberry on and called home. It was great to hear Pam's voice and to hear that they are doing okay (I also downloaded 145 emails ... I decide I'll read them when I get back to work in two more weeks or so - but I do flip through them a few hours later).
Greg prepares to cook and I set to work washing the dinghy. This is an interesting job to do as the wind blows you around and when you look up you are facing somewhere else.
Next was scraping the keel. Yves got the Brownie deep diving compressor out and we unravelled the hoses and prepped it. Next Yves outfitted me with Dominique's flippers and a mask. With a bit of adjustment they fit fine. The weight belt was next and I was fitted with ten pounds of lead - this helps offset the oxygen in the lungs so I can maintain neutral buoyancy under water. Yves shows me the regulator and how to use it. I think to myself that it is a good thing I read the scuba course books last year - but somewhat wishing I had finished the course.
I drop into the water and hold the swim stairs waiting to see if the neutral buoyancy is true. It is. We grab the scrapers and start at the back of the boat scrapping as we go. There are a few shells on the hull and lots of "hair" which is brown and green and has a base that looks like algae. At first it is really cool to be down there and I regulate my breathing as relaxed breathes. So far so good.
We clean the Rusee in about thirty minutes (I think). We then head to Teepee. We had exchanged our laundry duties for cleaning their keel. Yves asks if I can swim over but I don't think I can with these flippers. We row over and start to work. We start at the front.
I have swallowed some salt water and have had the water in my mask. I blow through my nose and can get the water out. I find it harder to work on Teepee for some reason. The current is strong and there are not many places to hold on so I am fighting with the flippers. Blue anti-faouling paint swirls in water as i scrape (it helps keep the algae etc from clinging to the hull and the Teepee had has had it reaplied recently). I really don't like doing this upside down on the Teepee and I find it somewhat claustrophobic. I have to surface a few times to ease my breathing. I taste salt down my throat. Oh well, the work needs to get done so I go down again and we finish a little later - maybe another half hour or so.
We return home and put away the Brownie Greg has hot tea and snacks (cheeses crackers and some smoked sausages). This is a nice treat and we relax. Greg has finished the Shepherd's Pie and is about to start on the pastas.
We put a few things away and I have quick nap as Yves checks the weather report.
The wind has picked up and although it has been drizzling on and off it really starts to rain now. I look out the back window and Teepee looks much closer than in the morning. A minute later we are all topside pulling the anchor and Yves is manning the engines. We have drifted down wind pulling the anchor and are about 15 feet from Teepee. Greg and I pull on the anchor, heaving as the boat tosses in the waves. The wind is fierce and the rain hits the face like little grains of sand. We get the anchor up and Yves expertly navigates us through the other boats that are moored. We go up the channel into the wind and find a large mooring ball. Greg catches it and wrestles it on board. We fight with the large ropes that are tangled and finally get then on the cleats.
We go inside. We are drenched and change. We laugh a bit. We know we are also a bit lucky that it happened while we were awake or on board. We relax.
The winds have been steady at 35 knots and we get gusts up to 57 knots (which is about 100 + km per hr winds)! The waves are quite large for such a well protected bay and the waves are about 3 to 4 feet. We have to rush out a few times to tie down the Bimini top as it keeps and threatens to blow away.
Wow the wind is intense and we see a man trying to save his docked boat. He just swam out with an anchor to try and get his beam to stay facing the wind. It takes maybe 15 minutes and he looks successful.
Greg is still cooking and the boat is still rocking. The sun is out and the rain has stopped but the wind is still gusting. What a rush. Mother Nature is a powerful force. We wait for the weather to change. Yves says we may have to delay our departure by a day as we are now behind schedule getting ready.
The wind kept up but we had the girls from Teepee over and ate Greg's famous spaghetti