37.03.525N 15.16.961E

After the “storm” we had two more days of high winds forecast. We decided to stay on board. The morning started quiet but we were not going to let the weather fool us into going ashore – apart from getting very wet in the dinghy on the way back no-one would be on board to sort out the boat if the wind did pick up (well Yoyo would but we haven’t trained her yet – an oversight on our part). Naturally we had a beautiful day with light breezes and nothing at all to worry about.

The following day we went exploring in the dinghy. The object was to visit Lidl with as little walking as possible. We had found the location on google maps and looked at possible places to land the dinghy. One was a mere minutes walk away from the store. We quickly found our ideal landing place and noticed the signs – “Military base – no landing”.  We decided to try our backup plan B & C for getting to Lidl. Unfortunately both were unsuitable as well. Finally backup plan D was invoked – we moored in town and walked for 30 minutes. Still we did have a lovely motor around, a bit of exercise and a quick shop in Lidl as well.

Life at anchor News:

Our dinghy still leaks air – we need to try fixing it better over winter. Currently we pump it up every time we want to use it.

Although we use the watermaker we use more water than we make by sailing once a week. We have two options – sail more than once a week (or for much longer) or buy some water containers and bring back water when we go ashore in the dinghy. We chose the latter to supplement our water supply. After a few attempts at filling the tanks by pouring the water in via a very small funnel we decided to buy some pipe so we could syphon it in. This works much better and means that all the water we bring back goes in the tanks.

The toothbrush is proving a challenge to keep charged – it requires hardly any current but for a long period of time. We may need to find a solar panel tooth brush charger!

On Saturday evening we had our first night time dinghy experience. We went ashore for a pizza with friends off Mystique. It took us a while in the dark to find Wanda. To start with we were just heading in the general direction. The boat we usually use as a “landmark” (I suppose that should really be seamark) due to it’s red sail covers wasn’t so obvious in the dark!!

We finally managed to use our Cobb BBQ for the first time – so far we have made bread and a quiche – both turned out brilliantly, we are very impressed.

Last night Yoyo managed to get stuck on the mizzen boom. After many scratches (on us) we got her down. We really hope she doesn’t do that again. She seems very quiet today. We’re not sure if she is a bit traumatized from last night or just hot. We think the latter.

Making fresh bread on a BBQ – no problem at all!

The weather is back to normal now – this is our typical evening view…

…although one night someone moored their boat and spoilt the view!