Hot diggity doggity days
The heat wave has hit us in Door County. Although we slept ok, by 7am we were up and sweating like crazy! We took a quick walk with Kona and then Captain made some pancakes and bacon for breakfast. By the time dishes were done Sarah and I were in our swimsuits and jumping in the lake. Yes, it is that hot that I was very ready to be super cold. I set up Kona’s pup plank and let her have a good swim as well. Sarah lasted a good ten minutes in the water. I jumped in, screamed that I felt better, and then got out. The cooling effect from even a quick dip lasts a few hours at least.
It was very muggy and hot. The boat was actually the cooler option as if we went to shore there was no breeze and miserable. Because of that we all opted not to hike today but just hang out on Ciara.
There was lots of boat and recreational craft traffic in the bay again today. Some sailboats left; others came. Lots of rental crafts. We had a strong off shore breeze again and despite Captain’s claim of “I’ve saved enough lives” he went and saved another two who where being dragged out to sea and were clearly exhausted.
Sometime mid afternoon the winds went crazy. Super crazy. All the sudden it cooled (that was nice!) and we were getting 90-degree wind shifts all over the place. Our boat doesn’t turn quickly on the hook as we are very heavy so when the winds picked up they weren’t necessarily on our nose causing us to loose another solar panel overboard. Noooo! I am having a hard time remembering any wind shift as violent as today in our years aboard. We had one at Beaver Island once that lifted Kona’s dish into Davey Jones locker that came close. I forgot to mention we lost another solar panel on the sail over on Sunday. We have had these smaller panels for 8 years and never lost any. We have lost three this year!! Captain was not happy. After he went though his stages of acceptance he went online and ordered three more. We are determined to secure them better now.
Collin, Captain and I fell into a nap after the wind storm. It is so hot I really can’t do anything except sit. I guess these are the dog days of summer! Sarah sat up deck listening to music and happily accepting compliments of the boat on our behalf by passing kayakers.
When I got up it was blazing again. I decided to put up our sun tarp with Sarah’s help. That was wonderful! The two of us sat on deck chatting and people watching under the tarp. At one point a family came by on their kayaks. The little boy asked “Are you guys’ pirates?” “ARGH, of course we arrrrrrrrr!” We gave them some stickers and chatted with dad for a bit who seemed to have that look of “maybe one day.”
The weather started to turn a bit cooler again, a sign of possible more storm fronts. We took a quick trip to shore for Kona around 5pm and hurried back to Ciara when we heard thunder. Thankfully we watched as the storms spilt around us and only blessed us with cooler air and no storm.
We waited until 7:30 to start dinner; the idea of turning on the stove any earlier was not an option. My marinated flank steak was a hit. It is really hard to believe that the meat and potatoes for this meal were freeze-dried. Our guests would have not known. The meat was very tender as well.
Captain ran to shore with Collin and Kona while I did dishes. The winds had calmed and he wanted to fly his drone. Captain has taken to going to the other sailboats around us and asking them if they want drone footage of their boats; of course they do!
Sarah got on a facetime call with her mom while I played taps to a drone hovering above at 9pm. Before I played Captain was hovering the drone near the boat and I told Sarah “Watch this!” as I lifted my shirt to flash Captain ashore. I heard from shore a few moments later “Got it!” lol. That was a good laugh. After taps, Dennis on Red Nib and I had our evening conch off. Kona got to play ball on the beach with Collin while Captain flew the drone a bit more before they came back to Ciara.
We took down the sun tarp and all hung out on deck with the much more reasonable temps and watched the stars come out. Moon rise was not long after sunset ruining our chances of seeing the Milky Way but we enjoyed staring up into the heavens. What a treat for our guests.
We took a look at the weather. We have a good window to cross back to Cedar River tomorrow and we are going to take it. There is a chance on Thursday, but none of us are in the mood to risk it. Plus, it is super-hot and there are advantages to just being back at the dock in time to relax before we head home for the weekend. Hope to do a little Upper Peninsula tourism. :D
With that we all said good-night from our hot sweaty day.
