Continued Strong Wind Warnings today on the weather forecast. It looks as if it will be this way for another day or so. Winds have been steadily 15-20 knots with stronger gusts. Our anchorage last night was protected, but the wind howled through early this AM and got the boat moving enough to send it into “creaking” mode. Usually the boat doesn’t creak unless the water is rough at anchor, but the water stayed fairly calm (considering the strong wind) and the boat made noises.
We decided to switch anchorages, thinking we might find someplace that would not only have smooth water, but give us some protection from the wind. On the chart, we saw a cove couple of islands over that looked like it would suffice, so we weighed anchor and headed over there. Surprisingly, the channel exposed to the wind wasn’t too bad this morning, so the couple of hours we were underway were tolerable. On our way to the cove we had selected, we passed by another island, and looking with the binoculars, saw a small, un-named cove with water like glass, when all around it there were whitecaps. We headed in and anchored in an incredibly still cove with water so clear, we could see the bottom at over 15 feet deep.
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| Our well-protected anchorage on Amedroz Island |
We were in the cove by ourselves until mid-afternoon when three sailboats came in and anchored as well.
Our inverter/charger (the device which both charges the battery when hooked up to shore power and changes DC power to AC) has been giving a warning message that the internal temperature is too hot when it has been charging the battery. I took a look at it, and the cooling grills and circuit boards (that I could see) were covered with lint. We tried to vacuum it out, but couldn’t really get access to it and I figured the best way to clean it out would be to use compressed air. Unfortunately, I do not have an air compressor on board, but I do have a hand pump to inflate the dinghy. I rigged up a connection from the pump to a length of hose, inserted a small plastic nozzle into the hose and one of us pumped and the other directed the nozzle into the ventilation ducts. It was pretty amazing how clean everything got with just that amount of “compressed” air. Now, of course, we’ll have to wait until we are at a marina again, hooked up to shore power, to see if it did any good.
Later in the afternoon I decided to try fishing in the next cove over. It had some grass and bushes growing along the shore, which looked like good bass habitat. About an hour or so was enough to get a couple of nice-sized largemouth bass (3-4 lbs each) which we later ate for dinner. They were incredibly fresh-tasting, having been swimming around in the lake just a couple of hours before being eaten.
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| A little warmer, a little less wind, and it would be perfect! |
We are planning on getting to the Benjamin Islands within the next day or so, depending on when this wind lets up. The cold front associated with this wind is keeping the temperature down to the low 70s during the day, and the wind is causing a lot of water mixing which lowers the temperature. My “bath” off the back of the boat this afternoon was quite refreshing (too cold for Elaine - she takes a nice warm shower on board). I could go for some warmer weather and warmer water…
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