It's a bit drafty round here

Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Sat 9 Oct 2010 16:27
The wind has been really strong for the last 2 days (think the technical term is 'blowing old boots').  We've been in the Marina with multiple ropes tied to the boat - after a number of re-tying sessions boat now looks like a cats cradle but at least it isn't going anywhere - we'll wait till it all calms down before moving on.   The sea wall around the harbour is big but you have to avoid getting a soaking from waves coming over it when walking about.
 
Yesterday it was a bit cold and miserable (had to put Jeans on in the afternoon) so it was a designated boat cleaning day since it hadn't had a good clean since coming across from the mainland and even 4 days at sea seems to generate mess so not much to write about there. 
 
Today the wind has remained but it's sunny so we did get a body board and go to the beach to try and tackle the waves - we fought the waves and the waves won.  Jad who is a surfer commented that the waves were too close to the beach (why he wasn't out surfing apparently - something about the 'wrong wind') - anyway, waves being close to the beach resulted in us being splattered into the sand.  I blame my sub-standard body board rather than our skill.  The thing is the waves would look pretty small and calm so you'd go out a little way - then a huge wave would appear from nowhere and instead of surfing gracefully into the beach, we would end up getting washed up in a pile or just propelled nose first into the beach.  Perhaps we should wait for the 'right wind'.  Ears, nose, wetsuit full of sand.  Adam got wiped out good and proper a couple of times.
 
Did a good deed today, so must have earned a gold star,  saw a British boat arrive at the Marina with storm sails on deck - we were going shopping for some food so went to see if they wanted some fresh bread buying as assumed they had come some distance.  Found out they had sailed from Lagos in Portugal - no idea why they decided leave when they did since there has been strong winds now for over a week out in the ocean between Portugal and here, and even here the waves are pretty big out at sea -  their crossing sounds a lot less fun than ours, they had to stop and hide below deck for 14 hours as the sea was too rough.  So they were happy to receive their shopping request - bread and wine.