Date: 05/14/2011 21:57:00
Local time: 2010
Location: Charlotte Amalie, USVI
Weather: Windy and Thunderstorms
Title: Now We Are Three - Again

Today Denis Campbell decided that he just wasn't comfortable enough with the current situation. He said he had a whole list of reasons but all he would mention was the GPS. I know he was also concerned about only having 60 gallons of water and no water maker. Anyway, Mirko took him ashore in the dingy early this morning.

Today's big task was to tighten up the forestay which required taking off the Genoa, taking apart the roller reefing mechanism, tightening the forestay and then putting the genoa back on. All this had to be done in the blazing hot sun. Everything went smooth enough until it came time to put the sail back up. This took three tries before we got it right, and it was a very physically demanding job.

After that, I decided to go on a search for a laundry mat which was an adventure in itself. Finally I found one in a questionable part of town and I was glad I had my rigger's knife just in case. But nothing went wrong and the lady running the place was very nice.

I returned to the marina and found the others at Peg Legs. As I was sipping my first beer, we heard a clap of thunder but we couldn't see any threatening clouds. I went around the other side of the building and could see some threatening clouds coming our way in the distance.

I returned and said, "We have a little time but we better get back to the boat."

No sooner did we get back to the boat then the wind picked up and rain/hail drove down on us. We started dragging anchor and were quickly headed to shore. Barry started the engine and I, with only shorts on, went up to the bow and jacked the chain in.

We found an empty mooring and with me on the bow with the boat hook, we snagged it and rode out the squall. But the mooring was private and Barry wanted to anchor again, so we cast off the buoy and anchored were we were before.

Within an hour, the wind and rain came up again and we started slipping again, even with extra chain out. So Barry decided to go back to the private buoy and spend the night.
We were pretty exhausted after that and hoped the owner didn't come back to claim his mooring.