Here we are in paradise. A deserted island, no other boats around and all day….it rained.

The day started off beautifully, but with clouds in the distance.

But...the squally weather caught up with us making this a stay on the boat day.

Oh well, we are in paradise. Even though it’s raining, we are in shorts and tee-shirts. We did get some stuff done and tomorrow is supposed to be a light wind day. I just hope that means “no rain” day too.

After morning coffee and banana pancakes (more on them below), we tidied up Charisma from our all day sail the day before. We folded the main and stays’l, put covers on both, deployed the dinghy (which means untying it from the foredeck laying it across the main cabin and using the foot pump to inflate it. Probably five hundred pumps, I’ve lost count, but it takes about fifteen minutes to inflate), put on the engine, oars, etc. Ann also did the laundry and I, um, took a nap.

Did I say the morning was gorgeous? Someone’s teasing us because it was absolutely cloudless. The purple/blue of the deep water right next to us contrasted brilliantly with the light turquoise of the 20 foot depth water we’re anchored in. There’s a hard line between the two colors that snakes right around Charisma. Off in the distance, about ½ mile away is the white line of breakers on the barrier reef. Really stunning, but off in the distance we saw some squally looking clouds and decided not to go in to the island until after lunch. Well, after lunch, we got hit with the downpour that has continued all day-so it’s a front and not a squall. Oh well.

Last night was stunning. There was a half-moon shining brightly and no clouds. The cool part was that the moonlight shone through the really clear water we’re anchored over and the water had a greenish radioactive looking glow from the moon hitting the sand and reflecting back. All around there were also dark patches where the bommies lurked- hard coral structures growing to within a few feet of the surface waiting to snag an unwary boat. But we see them!

The only other thing about this spot is that twice a day when the tide is high, we get larger waves rocking through our little piece of paradise. At low tide, the reef upwind of us clearly blocks the ocean waves and they break on the hard coral dissipating their energy. But, at high tide, some of the wave makes it over the reef and into our anchorage. It gets pretty bouncy. Right now that occurs about mid-afternoon and very early morning-around 0500 . Not such fun.

But what the heck. If this were easy, it wouldn’t be as much fun, er, right?

As my sister wrote us a while back; “The difference between adventure and ordeal is attitude”. We often find ourselves quoting that line as well as sharing it with our cruising friends who also knowingly nod their heads. Thanks Sue.

Oh, the pancakes! I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to eat regular pancakes again. Banana pancakes are absolutely the best. You just take overripe bananas, smash them in a bowl, then add pancake mix and water to the right consistency. They cook up with a slightly crunchy outside, probably due to the sugars from being overripe. Yummmmmy!