Getting closer to the water... but wet nonetheless!

Yesterday was a hot and sunny day where the wind built early. It had all the trademarks of a classic, pumping Walvis Bay day. We wheeled the boat out from the tent and began to get the feel of the new trolleys and general ground handling. This included wheeling it down to the launch ramp to make sure it all fits as it should. Everything went surprisingly well and I'm confident that we can do it safely with the wing on in a fair bit of wind. It was so close to the water that it was tempting just to push it all the way in.

Now, three things have changed from this scene above as against 18 months ago. The Yacht club has gone from red to blue, there is a brand new Orange boat instead of a hammered old black one... and Mari is about 1' taller and now lives on a boat!

So we are finishing off all the little details to protect the boat from the ensuing onslaught of corrosion. An outing on Thursday morning is still looking good... or was... until around midnight last night when a belting wind came across Walvis Bay that had us all running outdoors. We jumped in the car and headed down to the Yacht Club to make sure that the tent and boat were ok. There was lightning everywhere and the air was heavy. The tent seemed fine and the boat flashed orange with each huge lightning strike. We drove out to the water and sat in the car to watch natures firework display. The lightning was all around Walvis Bay but not hitting it directly. Fat drops of water began to fall and the wind dropped. We watched the lightning for about half an hour and then headed home as the rain increased. It virtually raned all night... and is still raining now, midday the following day. This is very unusual for a place that can go a year without i.e. They don't even have drains in the main street so the water just pools everywhere.

So todays job list that involves laminating on the boat has been forcefully delayed. One of these jobs is the fitting of the steering box. I think we can get by that for now. I still want to keep things on track so will simply have to get creative.

I've never seen this place rain like this. Of course, having come from the UK, we are getting the blame from the locals for bringing the rain! We keep on working in it expecting it to stop... but it's not. All the rivers will probably start running again in earnest. Oh well, good for the grass I guess. Let's see if we can still get out tomorrow.

Cheers, Paul