Tuesday, June 20, 2023 East Harbor

Last night was lovely for sleeping. Very quiet except for the sound of waves hitting the shore, but we had a nice cool breeze coming through the hatches. I got an 82 sleep score on Fitbit, which is good for me. It was kind of strange though. We were pointed East but yet had little 4" ripples coming at Annie from the Southwest. I did not understand that. Sometime during the night I checked that our solar anchor light was working and found it shining brightly. I use it because it draws fewer bugs (read mayflies) than Annie's bright LED anchor light.

I woke up at 5:30 and noticed that it was light out. Good to know for when we set early departure times. I finally got up at 6;00 to check the weather to decide if we should travel today or tomorrow. It appeared to me that both days seemed about the same, neither ideal. Winds appear to be about 15 knots both days from the ENE, so waves about 3' probably, indicating some rolling the crew won't like. 

I spoke with Peter and Marianna who had reached the same conclusion. So after 40 minutes of discussion and review of many weather apps, we confirmed our decision to stay put today and travel tomorrow, departing at 5:30. Since both days appeared about equal weather wise, we decided we would rather spend the day where we are rather than at Milliken. We discussed the possibility that one of us travel each day. That way at least one of us would have traveled on the best day!

The beautiful sunshine coming through my windows unfortunately showed me how dirty they were. So after coffee I set about to wash them inside and outside. Lots of windows on Annie! Then I cleaned the fabric covers on our fenders that say, "Annie". After that I took my torch and sealed the ends of some unraveling lines. All this, and more, while the Princess slept. Kerry did get up before noon and fixed us a big bowl of granola with fruits and nuts for lunch. I also had my first little white powered donut of the cruise. And I got kudos for the clean windows. 

Kerry's vegetable garden is doing well so far. She's got 2 basils (one sweet and one Italian), a cilantro, parsley and a hibiscus that will end up at our Florida condo when the season is over.

It's amazing how easy it is for us to pass the afternoon while at anchor. We love it. We spent about an hour on the phone with the Cunard travel planner setting up the flights for our Queen Mary 2 trip next April. We will be traveling with the Orros and Kerry's sister, Marty. Then Kerry read, spent time on her iPad, napped, etc. I smoked a cigar, polished some fiberglass in need, worked on today's blog, read and sunbathed. Cocktails were at 4:00 on top of the pilot house. The warm sun and cool breeze made it very pleasant. 

More vegetables for dinner tonight, a big fresh garden salad with green beans. We battened down all the hatches, secured the women and babies, then turned in early in anticipation of an anchor raising at 5:30 tomorrow morning. We are planning on a rolly trip across Lake Erie. Our trip is about 55 miles with 35 being in the open waters traveling across Lake Erie.