Outraged of Summer Song: Rain

A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Thu 26 May 2011 02:44
24:23.12N
076:37.98W
 
Today it has rained as if Summer Song were Noah's second ark. It rained in the English style - bored, relentless rain of the slightly-more-than-drizzle variety. The skipper got soaked at the helm. Alex wisely stayed below. We had anchored up near O'Brien's Cay for the night, where there is another sunken drug runner's plane rapidly turning into reef. However, the unclement weather and a strong current kept our snorkelling mission short.
 
We moved on in the afternoon to the centre of the national park - a cay called Warderick Wells. It is widely renowned to be a stunning place surrounded by turquoise waters and many coloured reef. But under cloudy skies and with rain falling, it looks rather barren and uninviting. The high point of the afternoon was notching up 6.8 knots of boat speed with just the genoa out. I had spent hours scrubbing the hull and scraping off barnacles, and it seemed to translate into instant extra speed. We hadn't been so fast since arriving in Cuba.
 
The day ended with a whimper, rather than a bang, though. We escaped the leaden skies by watching the third Bourne film in the warm glow of the saloon. After a brief pit stop for left-over couscous and a surprisingly vivid sunset, we resumed the evening with Sweet Home Alabama - specially chosen by Alex. Mercifully the laptop ran out of juice before the film's denouement, which we'll have to see at a later date.
 
Just time to check for news of Alex's new passport, whose arrival in Nassau could prompt a quick scuttle back across the Yellow Bank tomorrow. If not, we'll spend the day exploring Warderick and return on Friday.