Day 4 - Monday, Monday

Since we are stuck in one location, it is getting difficult to come up with things to write about!

The weather today was much warmer than the last few days, getting up to 68. Much more humid, too. Still have winds gusting to 20-25 knots. There is a big storm system heading our way from offshore of Texas. It is supposed to arrive tonight with heavy rain and even higher winds.

We did manage to get off the boat for a while. We had hoped to go have lunch at Pirates Cove nearby. It is an interesting place, a bit of a hole in the wall. But, fun to visit, and very dog friendly. We have not stopped there in 3-4 years and were really looking forward to it. But the weather is just not cooperating. As soon as we left the protection of our anchorage we were buffeted with high winds and a heck of a rough and wet ride. We were going to have head directly into it for at least 30 minutes or so, and would have been soaking wet by the time we arrived. I quickly executed a maneuver Paula taught me a few years ago... the U-turn!

I dropped Paula and Duke back at the boat and went to investigate the abandoned sailboat. Maybe there was something to salvage. It looked like it had been picked over pretty good, but I did find a perfectly good propane tank. I think it even still has propane in it.. and we need some! So I am going to return later with a crescent wrench so I can remove the regulator and liberate the tank.

We spent the afternoon reading books, watching wildlife, and trying to get the bread to rise so we can make Stromboli for dinner. It's just not warm enough to get it to rise properly. So I preheated the oven a little and stuck it in there. Then I tackled reprogramming the satellite dish so we could have TV again. Not that we watch much when aboard, but it is nice to catch the news and weather. We also use it for listening to DirecTV music channels.

It was getting late at this point, and we were getting antsy again, so time for another dinghy ride. I fixed us a couple of hot buttered rums in travel mugs, and we all hopped in the little boat to go exploring. A woman from one of the sailboats was rowing a small inflatable boat around the anchorage. As she passed by Paula commented that she was sure getting her exercise. The woman responded that she was going stir crazy on the boat and had to get out and do something. The couple in the other sailboat also got out and started rowing around the shoreline. So everyone was out getting a little fresh air before the storm.

The wind really ramped up and it starting getting cooler so we all headed back to our boats. Around dusk it started to drizzle and did that all evening. Just after dark a third sailboat arrived and anchored much closer to us than the others, but still a good distance away. It was time to start dinner so I checked on the bread, and it had hardly risen at all. Oh well, I just took a rolling pin to it and squished the heck out of it. I was able to spread it out enough so we could fill it with all the goodies, then roll it up and put it in the oven. It turned out delicious, one of our favorite boat meals. Thanks to our daughter, Alison, for the recipe.  We have made it hundreds of times over the years, and never tire of it.

I spent the evening remotely accessing customer's computers to get some service work done. Gotta pay the bills. By the time I headed off to bed it was raining pretty steadily.

Sorry, no pictures today.