The Browns' Mantra: Ditch Bag and Life Lines and Other Tasks

Sunset on the Tred Avon

After a couple days of an unrelenting, cold northeast wind which kept flags flying stiffly, the breeze abated yesterday in the late afternoon, although the water was still choppy. Peter and I played a game of Phase 10. (He won, but I won at backgammon the previous evening.) Then, we went to bed.

The skies were sunny until the late afternoon today, although a lighter northeast wind still made it chilly even though the thermometer almost reached 70 degrees Fahrenheit. We spent the day on the boat.

Peter spent time working on electronic equipment early in the morning, and, after I woke up, he installed the new forward-facing sonar. He wanted me to video the water gushing up through the bilge in the time between when he pulled out the bung and when he inserted the sonar device. Unfortunately, when I jumped back from the little geyser, I must have accidentally stopped videotaping, so I failed in my first task of the day. (Breakfast of mushroom and cheese omelet and fried potatoes was a success, however.)

Peter getting ready to pull the plug

After the geyser

After breakfast, I walked to the marina clubhouse and enjoyed a delightfully hot and long shower. On the way there, I stopped to observe the cluster of nests where numberous purple martins are tending their young.

Purple martins nesting

Purple martin at a nest

Later, I inventoried the ditch bag and ordered items I thought we needed such as a signal mirror and a whistle and a compass (I found the mirror and whistle in a hidden pocket later.) and tested all the lights and beacons. I found a four-day supply of the previous owner's heart and cholesterol medicine. We don't need those prescriptions, but finding them made me realize that I should put my own prescription drugs in the ditch bag! I guess I'm not as optimistic about rescue, because I cached a ten-day supply. I also found copies of their passports, which would have been confusing for rescuers if they found the ditch bag but not us! Obviously, copies of our passports will be included.

After lunch, Peter and I worked on putting on new lifelines. Some of the ones on the port side were damaged when a enormous amount of accumulated snow fell from the roof of the large shed in the boat yard onto Mantra, stored on the hard directly beside the shed. Peter looked at video to remind himself how to make Brummel splices, and he taught me. We cut the first line for the top line on the port side too short, but luckily it fits in the middle. Unluckily, the holes in the stancions for the middle and bottom lines do not have as big a diameter as the top, so the Brummel splice would not go through them. Peter had to undo one of the splices and then redo it after feeding the line through. There is now one new line in place and three to go, but that is a job for tomorrow--although Peter may be working on it as I type and wait for the water to boil for pasta.