The morning started off with a long and heavy downpour, the skies were gray and we were still in a very lazy mood.
I looked outside the companionway and saw no desire in leaving the boat. The rain was falling straight down with no presence of wind, so I decided I would set up some rain collection devices.
I positioned the staysail in a way that it covered the majority of the foredeck and drained into a bucket placed at its lowest corner. I also raised the boom with the topping lift and set another bucket under the gooseneck to catch any rain that drained off the main. All of these measures proved rather ineffective. The main produced 1/4 of a bucket and the staysail produced nearly 1/4 of a bucket. My plan was to do some laundry today with the rain water I collected, but I couldn't collect enough rain to make the endeavor worthwhile. Just like everything else, laundry got pushed back to a later date when we had more water and more desire.
Watching all the rain fall on the deck and dribble through the toe rail makes me wish I could collect the rainwater from the deck! The deck offers a lot of surface area which is collecting and then disposing of a lot of fresh water. If I could set up a system that would collect this water, we could supplement our water needs while cruising and avoid the necessary trips to shore to re-water the boat. I know that the deck collects a lot more than just water, bird poop, salt, and regular dirt seem to accumulate on the deck when we are sailing. If the deck were our water collector, I would be much more motivated to keep it spotless, and a quick scrub at the beginning of a rain storm would clean the deck, allowing any crud to be washed off before the tanks were allowed to be filled. While I didn't get much done, my mind did begin devising new projects and plans!
Once the rain passed, we went to shore and made our way to a local movie theater where we got to see "Finding Dory". This was surely a highlight of our day! Maddie and I both remember watching "Finding Nemo" as small children, so seeing the story continue all those years later was a very entertaining moment.
After that, we enjoyed some locally made ice cream and sat by the shore watching the tide flow in. Our day passed as slowly as the water rose before us.
Later that afternoon, we ventured over to St. Michael's to get dinner at "Aweful Arthurs", which despite the name, was very wonderful! Fresh seafood and gluten free options on the menu made Maddie and me quite delighted! While we had a boat stocked with foods for the trip, we enjoyed eating at unique places that have the local flavors cooked into the meals.
The day was drawing to an end and we made our way back to the boat for another nights rest.
