Moonshine

Monday, 11-09-2015, 0800, 60 degrees F, wind NNE, 10 knots, rain showers, fog. A beautiful day to be a duck, a fish or a squadron of pelicans, who seem particularly to relish this kind of weather.

Nothing went wrong. No collisions, near misses. But it rained buckets and buckets. And of course our leak continued to be active, however before it started in earnest, I systematically poured water on suspected leak points and damned if we didn’t find it. Now, once it stops raining and dries a bit I can get it fixed. 

Given that we live in ‘end times’ according to Michelle Bachman, former member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Minnesota, it may never stop raining, or at least not until Jesus comes back, which of couse he is soon, according to Minnesota Michelle.

What the hell kind of moonshine have those poor people in Minnesota been drinking? It must be distilled from jimpson weed with bleach. 

Of the nine boats that were here last evening only three remain. The intrepid sailors on those six boats actually left in the pouring rain. Of course they had enclosed cockpits, as opposed to our open, but perfectly nice cockpit. This kind of hard relentless rain does give us pause. So we decide to sit this one out. What the hell, we are not in any hurry. 

At 1000, seven U.S. Marine amphibious boats show up and the feature movie begins.

I imagine that a Camp Lejeune commander got up at 0400 this morning, saw that the National Weather Service was calling for high winds and heavy rain and thought to himself what a fine day it would be to practice basic boating skills, although he also probably thought, parenthetically, that it’s a shame it’s not colder.

Undaunted, he gathered his company and here they are.

Most of these magnificent young men and women are probably from Kansas or Nebraska and the largest water body they have ever seen is an irrigation ditch. 

None the less, they drove their boats around in circles, backing and turning, accelerating and decelerating, looking like fine seamen to me. At Lejeune I suspect these troops train constantly. They do important jobs. I love them all (even the ones from Kansas).

Mile Hummock Bay today.

By 1700 there were seven boats in the bay (not counting the marines).

Weather is moderating a bit now. Actually warming up. Winds decreasing. Overcast but not raining. Looking like much less chance that boats will drag.

Early to bed tonight. Early to rise. Big day tomorrow. We want to proceed rapidly to Wrightsville Beach and beyond.

Sweet Dreams