Making hay while the sun shines

With an empty berth next to us and no wind, we took advantage of the conditions to spin ERIK around and paint the rub rail on the port side.

After a big omelette breakfast, we got stuck into it, because the weather this Easter is looking very average.

There’s a CYCT cruise to Maria scheduled for this Easter, but I think they won’t get much further than Taranna. Regular readers will know that Chinaman’s Bay on Maria Island isn’t much fun in a sou’westerly.

With rain forecast for the afternoon, we got two coats of paint on and decided she looked lovely. Early afternoon rolled around and still no rain, so I took our dinghy BONNIE out for a sail to check out a new neighbor, the South African research vessel LADY AMBER, tied up outside the CSIRO wharf.

As Ratty said, is there anything quite so worthwhile as messing about in boats? I had a very relaxing hour or two, drifting about in a few knots of breeze, leaning against one side of the dinghy with my grubby feet dangling over the other. There’s something very peaceful sailing a small boat that is difficult to achieve in a large one.

Worried about the increasing building cloud condition, I got back and saw a barometer nosediving from 1024 down to 1010 inside three hours and continuing to fall. I then checked the rain radar…

Looks like we can expect plenty at around 2030 to 2100 tonight!