The Benjamins, Part 2

Shortly after the Conyers left the boat, and after we had cleaned up the dinner party mess, the wind came up. 15 miles per hour, with a few gusts higher…….you got it, directly from the south!!!! Remember, we are anchored plus tied from the stern, with the bow pointed east, the stern west. Yep, we are now taking wind and waves broadside. Needless to say I slept above that night!!

Morning came and brought a measure of calm. We looked, John and Jean looked, at the forecasts and it seemed we were in for a reasonable day with some chance of winds from the southwest later in the day, so we made the decision to stay and enjoy the island, a pink granite mass covered with wild blueberry bushes, cedar trees and scrub. So we both dinghied to shore, John and Jean with their Airedale dog Dante and lots of cushions, food, etc for the day. We hiked, picked blueberries, started a fire and generally enjoyed ourselves for a few hours. Attached are pictures from the day.

About 1 o’clock the wind came up, again from the south, and light rain moved in. We built a comfy shelter in a group of trees and shrubs right by the fire and settled in. All was well until Conyers’ sailboat pulled loose from its rear mooring on a piton in the rock and began to swing on anchor only. Not a bad situation, but they decided they’d like to be on the boat to see that the anchor would hold. So they left Dante with us and off they went in their dinghy to the sailboat. After a bit John came back leaving Jean on the sailboat.

Message as follows: Wind is now at 35 miles per hour from the south and not due to change to southwest for a few hours, and a heavy rain is coming. Their sailboat, now bow into the wind rather than broadside to it, was very stable (9 foot, ballasted keel below helped stability) so lets leave the island before the big rain hits. So we loaded all the gear into our dinghy (which isn’t powerful enough to go on its own directly into the wind and waves) and Mary, Emery, Dante and John into their dinghy. Off we went, hauling our dinghy behind. Hard to describe the short trip, but wind, waves, rain made it an adventure. But we made it, and spent a comfortable few hours on the big sailboat as the storm rolled by. We had dinner and then just before dark we took our dinghy over to our boat for the night. It had calmed down a bit, and the wind did in fact shift to the southwest, giving us relief from the direct broadside waves.

We settled in….then????? See the next blog for the nighttime adventure that really capped it off.