Bora Bora

I apologize for the quickly written entry last night; but I needed to get the (albeit mediocre) photos up before sleep. 

So we experienced the Bora- a north/northeasterly wind common in the Adriatic. As long term bloggies recall, the below Beaufort scale categorizes storms.  One knot is equal to 1.15 miles per hour. 

Based on the above, we found ourselves in a "fresh gale" with occasional "whole gale" gusts. The sails came down pretty quickly- and you may ask why? Well I figure it is a combination of having charterers in their 80s who need to stay in one piece at least until the bar bill is paid; combined with a man sailing someone else's 15 million euro boat. Something like that.

As many of you know, I have taught my child to feel as I do about stormy weather. Thunder and lightening; wild winds; huge seas- these are ecstasy when you are warm and protected.

 If you cant hear the dragon scream every once in while, how will you ever learn you are safe from it?

So each of us celebrated in his own way: Thomas taking up position at the stern; F battening down the hatches (the crew secretly following behind doing it properly) as if preparing for Christmas morning; I walking behind the Frenchiesinwhite on the increasingly wobbly deck, interviewing them about exactly how terrifying this would be.... for the blog purposes of course-I wanted a Beaufort scale of nail biting. 

My mother in law is genuinely terrified of big weather on a boat, and so i sat near her and drank tea (before my brother in law got the idea that pirates drink rum). The crew asked us if we wanted this sheet of plastic up on the sides to protect against water splashing us, and of course we declined. (Pirates need to see the sea.)

Sure enough we got absolutely creamed by one wave coming in one side, and then the other. Eva was drenched. But she couldn't get up, so she sat gamely holding a pillow for warmth. 

What she doesn't know of course, is this is no more scary than the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Sure you bounce and get wet and someone is singing about rum. No, what's scary is bouncing around in the Pacific Ocean in high winds in a 25 foot sail boat with a hot tempered amputee captain. That's scary. This is heaven. 

We had a little trouble finding a port in he storm though- a place to anchor that was sheltered. The one we found was good enough so the crew let out many yards of

anchor so the boat would face the wind at all times, and we had a fairly normal dinner. 

Thomas predicted we would sleep like babies with the howling wind. Alas, this was not to be. When I woke in the night, I  it was so loud on deck with the creaking and moaning that I thought the crew was up there fixing something. 

Rosie acts as captain when they sail across the Atlantic, and she says once they had a four day storm with lightening that was so loud she couldn't sleep worrying about which noise to worry about. And this was the role I played last night; lying there in my little tank top: wondering if the boat would hold, wondering if I would have to save Frederick; wondering how this would affect the croissant count at breakfast. 

Bora still lingering - Battening down the hatches as we speak.