Barnegat Bay Inlet and Lighthouse

Awakened to a pleasant morning, somewhat overcast, but then the sun shone brightly on this small fishing community.  We are anchored in about 9’ of water, in view of the lighthouse, with 2 other sailboats on private moorings.

Our day starts with coffee, first and foremost, usually in the cockpit, unless the weather has a say in that….even after a night’s storm, we dry off the cockpit seats and relax listening to the sounds of the day’s beginnings. Then some easy breakfast foods.

Around 10 am, without much warning, a tremendous thunderstorm approached with winds blowing through hard enough to cause some concern once again. This is beginning to become a pattern, with these summer thunderstorms. Tim, attired in raingear, in anticipation, sees that An Cobh has begun to drag anchor……..not a good thing at all!  (In the midst of the height of this storm, everything became a “white-out”, (absolutely NO visibility)and very difficult to get bearings with the other boats, and the shoreline, and the wind is screaming more than you can imagine.)  Finally realizing the severity of the situation, he pulls the anchor and re-establishes our anchorage, having not encountered any damage to the boat, or becoming grounded. 

One lesson I learned, is to never let your guard down, be thinking the worse and act quickly before more trouble is encountered. I have learned to don my raincoat in a hurry and be helpful in anyway I can.  Became very familiar with putting on my inflatable life jacket yesterday as a matter of fact so I was ready this morning if need be. 

The rest of the afternoon, we took advantage of the dry times in between the occasional sun showers, and  hauled the dinghy on the bow of the boat and scrubbed the bottom off….not too many barnacles had attached themselves! I even felt like my grandmother, and washed an area rug in the green bucket we have for multiple tasks. I even rinsed it in the salt water here in the inlet (don’t want to use fresh, valuable water from the storage tanks for that). Tim is now sewing a small tear in the dodger before it gets any worse with the wind kicking up.

Thinking of all of these “terms” that come second nature to me, and that I’m throwing about, I’ve decided to take some pictures to share with you:

         This is my Tim sewing up the "dodger", which keeps us protected from the wind

  And this is the "biminie" (that's right, the biminie) It's purpose is to keep the hot, baking sun off your bald head (oops, I mean to protect you from the hot, scorching sunshine!!)

  And this is a 75 watt solar panel that helps to keep the "house" (my house now)charged up

And this is our brand new Forespar Nova motor hoist/lift, that we bought b/c we bought a bigger outboard 4 HP motor for our bigger dinghy.....you know how that goes right? Buying one thing after another after another just because!!

                                                  And this is the thing that started all of that:)

Will reunite with you tomorrow....another day in paradise!