I don't know what's going on with the weather. Since we got back from Texas it seems that if it's not howling, it's raining. Except for those times when it howling rain. And we have had a few of those. Cisterns are staying full.
There was already about a foot or so chop at dawn this morning.
And it builds throughout the day.
I guess it was like this last year, too. I don't remember it being this windy this long. Must be Al Gore's jet stream or something.
But we try not to let the wind keep us off the water entirely. keep us off the water, entirely. We bought one of them Hobie inflatable tandem kayaks some months ago for exercise and knee rehab. It works real good. We just throw it on top of one of the 4x4's..
So when we don't feel like getting beat up offshore in the 'big boat', we have our little rubber boat and can always find a sheltered area. That's one of the good things about islands. And we have plenty of canals to explore around here.
Yesterday we saw the local version of "Deadliest Catch" boats..
(eat yer heart out, Sig)
Oh, that mop might be used to keep the deck clean, but that's not the primary function. The local lobster fishermen use mops to catch spiny lobsters. They use the mop head to entangle the spines. We haven't tried it yet, but from what I have seen it should work pretty well. They tell us to use an old mop, with fluffy strands.
Friday was the first time we had taken the kayak out since the knee replacement over five weeks ago. We got an hour of hard pedalling in, no problem:
Now, notice you don't see the dog in that photo. Historically, he rides on the very back of the kayak behind me. We figured that kept him out of the way of the pedals. And keeps a wet dog out of our way. More on this later.
So we have spent a total of three hours so far this weekend kayaking around exploring. Just goofing off, really. Looking at things like this really awesome boathouse someone is building into the canal bank:
That is going to be one really great place to keep a boat during a storm.
Things went so well Friday that yesterday we decided to give the sail another try. That's it rolled up and secured alongside the kayak:
We got out onto the Caicos Bank, in about a fourteen knot wind, and tried to sail. What a disaster. A real Flustercluck, if you know what I mean. The sail was flapping like mad, making a heck of a racket and for some reason I could not get the rudder to work. It was sporadic, and I could NOT figure out why. We didn't even get any photos of the sail up. We managed to duck into a little spot and get it all taken back down. THEN we figured out what was going on. This kayak has the rudder lines running through a flexible tunnel that is glued to the top of the kayak. Normally, the dog is sitting back there happy, and things work fine. BUT put him on a small boat with this big scary sail flapping to beat the band right above his head, and I guess he digs in. Or does something. ANYhow, we finally figured out that it was the dog in panic mode that was preventing the rudder from moving freely, which contributed to the boat not being controllable, and the sail flapping more, which further freaked the dog....well you can see this was a viscious circle.
I did check the specs on the sail later. Not supposed to try to use it when the wind is over 10 mph. Whoops.
We didn't try the sail again yesterday. We DID experiment with moving the dog forward. So far the only place we could find where he is not underfoot ( literally) is next to La Gringa. Which makes him just as happy as can be. And also keeps him close enough to throttle when necessary.
It remains to be seen whether he will be as happy riding up here in Business Class when that sail is directly overhead. I suspect he will beat feet to the farthest spot on the boat. Which will be shaking and shivering right back on the rudder cables. We'll see.



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