Work, work and more work

After I made my post on Monday, May 16, the weather changed. In the west, in the distance, we could see single white strokes of lightening heading straight to the ground. Unlike the storm a few days before, the thunder was more threatening, sounding like jet engines starting one after the other. The clouds were making beautiful patterns. I sat on the aft deck above the swim platform and watched and listened, reminded of the times my mom, my siblings and I would sit on the front porch to watch storms, unconcerned about the filigreed cast iron posts supporting the roof of the porch. The rain announced itself with a splat here and a splat there but then became a downpour, the drops making innumerable parallel vertical lines, pelleting the surface of the water and ricocheting back up. Peter and I sat in the pilot house enjoying the special light of a thunderstorm as well as the sounds. The rain fell heavily for 15 minutes and then passed by, leaving a spectacular full rainbow in the east, the first of the sailing season. We take special delight in thunderstorms (as long as we are not in danger) because they are extremely rare where we live in California.

Approaching thunderstorm

Hard rain striking the water's surface

Rainbow after the storm

After the storm passed, we went for a longer walk than usual, exploring back streets of this small town, finding more painted picket fence sections to admire and new flowers to identify.

Sunset scene

Nautilus

Tuesday was a warm and sunny day, and I was up bright and early to make breakfast for Peter. Then both of us set to work and continued almost non-stop, working to the point of exhaustion. In the morning, I did four loads of laundry. After making and enjoying a pasta dish for lunch, I laid out the reef lines on the deck and then scrubbed them hard with a stiff bristle brush to get out the mold and pollen that had embedded themselves in the strands. That took a couple hours. Then I moved on to cleaning the pilot house and the cockpit. Peter did various jobs in the aft lazarette and engine room and spent a good deal of time sorting parts we already have and ordering parts we need or might need since we expect to leave here early next week and there needs to be time for delivery. It appears that Peter is now focused on the end game!

At sunset around 8 p.m., we cleaned up our tools and put away the hoses and thought about dinner. There were soups to reheat, but, once again, no place to sit down for a meal. The cockpit was wet and the table down below was covered in parts. We walked the short distance to Capsize and enjoyed a meal al fresco. Peter had a local brew and I had a glass of white wine, which perceptibly increased my need for sleep. In a  slight daze, holding Peter's hand, I walked back to the boat with him. Unfortunately, bed was not an immediate option because under our bed is a large storage space, and Peter had raised the mattress and taken up the boards to access various things he needed throughout the day. We had to put all that back and then make the bed. 

Today dawned bright and clear and stayed that way until mid-afternoon, when clouds again obscured the azure dome. I set to work cleaning the windows on the pilot house, cleaning grime off electrical cords and a plastic inflatable solar light, cleaning teak in the cockpit, and wiping water spots off some of the stainless steel rails. I would have continued working longer than mid-afternoon, but the switch from brightness to gloom made me suddenly tired. Peter usually goes non-stop every day and lack of sunshine does not slow him down usually, but even he felt tired. (Well, we both had been working hard.) We took a break and played the card game Quiddler and ate some chips. 

Peter got the reef lines in place on the mainsail while I cooked dinner. I made another soup this evening, a melage of vegetables and herbs, and parmesan toast. Now we have three different kinds of soup to heat for a quick meal. 

Tomorrow should be warm and partly sunny, and both Peter and I have mental lists of what we need to accomplish. We are both eager to get underway.