Sewing starboard side fender blanket

Friday 27 Mar, CY day 13: Didn’t Dory once say: “just keep sewing, just keep sewing!” ?

We wake to more wind than yesterday. 10-15 kts and increasing. So we take our large over-boom sunshade down before we regret it. There’s enough breeze to keep us cool without it now anyway. The shade is only really needed in windless conditions. As we remove it we have to be careful to ensure both it and Oana don’t get blow off the transom!

Good local news today. Everyone ashore seems to have been good boys and girls so far during the hard curfew. And even better news, the number of positive Covid cases is still flat, at 8. With the increasingly grim world figures, people here are now taking the crisis very seriously. Thank goodness. Today they announce what will happen when the 3-day “hard curfew” will be lifted at 5am tomorrow. It will be replaced with a “shelter in place” during day time, 5am-7pm, where people are allowed out for essential activities (food shopping, go to pharmacy). And the hard curfew will continue during the nights.

On board Cloudy Bay we are still quite content. We are lucky to have rehearsed being together 24/7 for the last 4 years now, so there’s no relationship shock for us! But it would be interesting to be a fly-on-the-wall with certain friends and relatives right now 🙂 Our days are also brightened by listening to the local Breeze radio station which plays THE best collection of music we have ever heard. The music is only interrupted by very professional and well scripted public health and safety announcements and the hourly news.

Meanwhile, the sewing project continues. Today we manage to start and complete the starboard fender blanket. Gradually, the stitching is getting neater as our skill using the SailRite machine increases. It’s a brilliant and robust piece of machinery. If it were run over by a Sherman tank I’m sure it would remain intact! We really like it, even if it does weigh-a-ton.

We are treated to another beautiful red sunset as I swim around the hull cleaning it then squeegeeing off the salt water ready to try out the fender blankets when the wind next dies down – we don’t want them getting all salty now do we?
After that we run the Volvo for 40 minutes. It’s far more fuel efficient to run the generator to recharge batteries, but a) I like to run the main engine at least once a week and b) it heats the domestic water much hotter than the 220vAC immersion heater, powered by the generator. And Oana loves hot water for hair washing… “happy wife happy life” and all that 🙂

This morning we released probably our best Bahamas video on YouTube. So while Oana finishes reading her second (?) book today, I reply to all the comments. All very nice remarks except for 1 nasty person. Why is it that there’s always one (or 2) idiot(s) who are clearly intent on spoiling your day? This is a big downside of the anonymity on the internet. We imagine such people are like little mice with a grudge, in real life.

Despite our relatively lazy day, we still don’t make it to bed till midnight. If/when we go to bed by 9pm, that will be the indication we are seriously bored!