There is nothing like time on a sailboat. Salt air, gentle rocking motion, and family fun.. Here was day one:
6am- We awake to pouring rain. We go through the motions of getting ready for our 6:30am conference call to determine if it is the day to go. Radar shows rain ending, but weather report says it will be there. We decide to go.
10am- We are sailing about 2 miles off shore in the usally calm waters of LI Sound. Today though, seas are following us (a good thing for making time) but they were high seas for our little boat. Mel started looking green.
11am- New London/Thames River (not pronounced Tems), seas here are more confused as the river water mixes with the Sound. we are bouncing all over the place. Mel really looking green, unable to take helm for sail changes/adjustment/potty breaks/food...
11:05 - about 10 feet later and Mel is over the side feeding the fish.
11:10 - Mel feeling much better now, I try not to think about her fish food...
So we get there, set anchor and all is well. We hit the beach then make dinner on our bbq grill and hit the sack. Everyone is sleeping well until Mel and I awake at about 11pm. The boat is rocking and the wind is building. Lightening abounds, the seas build, torrential rain (that may have been hail) comes down and the wind is raging through my mast stays making a heinous whistle. I envision a skeleton screaming on my boat, my imagination is too wild...
We bob up and down, swing wildly as the winds gust around the boat. The fear is our anchor doesn't hold and we zoom like a freight train into a myriad of options: rocks, other boats, beach, out to sea. I've resolved to the fact that anything left on deck last night is gone, as is the dinghy...
I tell Mel we are in the safest place possible. Of course, the kids life jackets are on deck tied to the safety line to "dry". The jackets were within hands reach the remainder of the trip...
Eventually storm calms down and an hour later, my pulse relaxes and we sleep again... Dinghy and all on deck was still there...
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