Actual Weather-Type Weather

The weather has been changing constantly these last few weeks. Unlike home, where it’s sunny and in the mid-70s for weeks or months at a time, here in Maine things never stay the same for long. Heavy fog will hang around for days and leave everything soggy, then it might be hot and humid, and then sometimes the exciting bit: thunderstorms.

The California drought has probably made us overly enthusiastic for rain, but every time there’s been a thunderstorm Soren and Elsa have greeted it with cheers. Last night it poured rain, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled in from the ocean, the boat rocked steeply from side to side — and the kids were thrilled. They were even disappointed when we decided to leave our anchorage at Roque Island this morning for a more protected cove out of the wind.

That turned out to be a great call as the storm has only gotten worse. It’s gushing rain, there are white caps in the harbor, and the wind is whistling through the fir trees on the islands. Even some lobstermen are complaining about it on one of the VHF channels. “Yep, just when you thought it couldn’t rain any more….” “That’s a lot of water comin’ outta the sky ….” Our little cove has been protected from the worst of the wind and the waves though.

It’s been nice to stay another day because we met a lovely French family at the beach yesterday afternoon. Francois and Anne, from Brittany, with two little girls, aged seven and two. And get this: They’re sailing in a metal boat built by M. Garcia, before he founded the Garcia yard where EXIT was built. Theirs is steel, about 7 years older than EXIT, and Francois has rebuilt most of it himself. He knows that boat inside and out. He actually sailed it with Anne’s cousin from France to Nova Scotia, past Greenland and Iceland. They had to get iceberg reports sent to them daily during the passage, and had a special radar installed to view them better. Such badasses. Anne and the girls met him in Halifax in early July and they’ve been sailing together since then.

To be honest, they seem significally more relaxed and settled than we do — an extra month seems to work wonders. 🙂 They invited us to dinner on their boat last night (no fridge, take that), which was our first-ever boat dinner date. Great fun. They served us paté on crackers with cornichons (bien sûr), and then pasta. Elsa and the girls got over their shyness after a bit and hit it off, even though they could only communicate by pointing and grunting. We’re planning to invite them over for dinner tonight, although I’ve no idea what we’re going to feed them. Beer and peanuts maybe.