CALM AFTER THE STORM

Two nights and a day of nasty weather is behind us.  Very strong southerly winds made for an  uncomfortable couple of nights, particularly around two in the morning.  Once again, I wonder what makes the wind strongest at two in the morning.  It was gusting at fifty knots plus in the Colville Channel just to the south of us.

The wind was particularly annoying as it was coming in big gusts with almost calm lulls in between.  In the strong gusts the bow of Truce falls away and as the anchor snubber comes tight she sails forward, then in the lull with no wind to hold her she keeps going and sails on over the anchor before bringing up and falling away again.  This is uncomfortable and wearing, a steady strong wind is preferable. 

Anyway, today the wind has abated, we now have a gentle twenty knots which doesn’t trouble us in the anchorage.  We have had two days without sun and solar input.  I ran the engine for an hour to feed some amps back into the batteries.  It would be nice to have lithium batteries that provide so much more usable power, must do Lotto.

Mid-morning, we shifted anchorage to the bottom of Kaiarara Bay and went ashore for a walk.  We have been here before many years ago.  As we took the dinghy into the shore I remembered the shallow muddy beach, it hadn’t changed.  I pulled the dinghy ashore through the thick mud with Ngozi sitting in it like a princess, she got out when we hit firmer ground. 

We didn’t walk too far, just didn’t feel like it.  Ngozi found a rich vein of Pipi’s in the mud on the beach and set about harvesting.  We then returned to Truce and set off for a bit of fishing as we fancied fish for dinner.  We caught a few healthy snapper and kept two for the evening meal. 

It still gets dark early and we returned to a cove on the south side of Kaiarara bay to anchor for the night.  The evening meal started with Pipi’s followed by fish and chips, no mushy peas available unfortunately. Tasted great.

All is good on board this evening, we are well fed and watered.  The fire is on and its cosy, a quiet and peaceful night is expected, the wind has died down.