WOW -Waiting On Weather

Lochmarin
Wed 6 Jun 2012 18:45

Well, folks we're still here in sunshine and showers Falmouth.. we need a weather window of about 4 days to be able to comfortably cross the Bay of Biscay, and we're certainly not getting that this week! Tomorrow they predict gusts of Force 9 in the Bay so we're sitting tight here on our mooring pottering at jobs and enjoying watching the grockles. 

Falmouth is a funny mix. Lots of yotties, predictably with so many boats here, easy to spot even when not wearing life jackets and coats with fluorescent  yellow hoods, as they almost all have Musto, Henri Lloyd or Sea Salt clothes on. Then there's the swarms of visitors from the cruise ships, often american, the women wearing jewellery and slacks, a hazard on the street as they are so unpredictable as they amble around, stopping with no warning to look in a shop window, changing direction unexpectedly as something takes their eye. There's also the traditional half term holiday makers, the kind we're used to in Weymouth, managing to be burned bright red between the showers and looking freezing in their shorts and singlets - they're on holiday, it has to be shorts and singlet weather! Finally there's the locals, often craftsmen, getting on with their lives, milking the crowds whilst they are here, expertly dodging the amblers on the pavements and enjoying the evening light with a glass of local brew in their hands.

When not enjoying people watching we've been settling in on board. We've set up our towed generator as a wind turbine, it's working great, perfectly silent, steadily churning out the amps. It and the solar panels are keeping up with the fridge and lights etc fine I'm glad to say. We're also sort of nesting - rearranging all the 'stuff' we dumped on board when we cleared out the house, finding homes for things, wondering why we thought we needed them on board...

There's always a few little fixing jobs to do on board too: the brace for the drive belt to the alternator broke so we had it re-welded, we've been overhauling the pumps, tracking down that slow leak on the dinghy, finding a replacement for the funny little plastic bushing that we managed to drop overboard!

So we're happy, peaceful on our new home, enjoying a little waiting time - something I have a feeling we'll need to get used to.