Day 16 – April 14

We get an early morning wake up, around 4, with the sound of rain, so we run around like a chicken without a head to close everything up; 3 hatches and 6 ports, which includes removing screens.  After that escapade, I cannot get back to sleep, so I read until daybreak.  Today is forecast to be stormy, so after listening to the morning Boot Key Harbor report, a great ½ hour report of new and departing boats, things to do, info, things to sell and needed, etc., we dingy in to walk.  We go off to Publix to pick up some water and bananas, but mostly it is about the walk.  We return right before we get four deluges, with lots of wind.  There was so much rain that I am forced to pump the water out of the dingy with the manual bilge pump, and there is still more water to remove underneath the floor.  I am in the process of scrubbing the hulls, as with the warmer water we are getting more growth faster than before.  I have almost completed the entire outer portion of the hulls and will work on the inners when there is a little less wind and waves.  (There is always something to do.)

We dingy in for showers and there are little waves in the harbor, enough that with the wind, it gets us wet coming back and forth from the dock.  Back on the boat, we have dinner and only open one hatch for the evening as we are getting 25 knot gusts.  I put an extra line on the mooring ball just to be sure, although I doubt if it will be needed.  With the wind, all of the boats in the harbor are "sailing" on their moorings.   With this wind, our friends are going to be delayed as they are staying put with the small craft advisory in effect for the next few days.