Coming up here, Roy noticed that the alternator kept kicking out. He found a loose wire and fixed that. This morning, he started the engine to see if the alternator would work ok now. It kicked off almost immediately again. Then we noticed that the temperature warning light was lit, even though the water hadn't even started to warm up. Roy checked, and sure enough, one of those wires had shaken loose. He fixed it, and now everything seems to be working normally, thank goodness. He also disconnected the third battery. Always before, we just had two batteries. It looks as if we'll have to get a higher-rated circuit breaker for three batteries.
Next, he rearranged the staysail so it would have better shape. By then, it was nearly noon, and the wind was blowing pretty hard, but Roy paddled ashore anyway. I chickened out and stayed on the boat, torn between wanting to go ashore with Roy and being glad I was on the safe, secure boat.
The wind kept blowing harder and harder. The water was full of whitecaps. Fishing boats kept scurrying into port. One had to be towed in. I was puzzled, because I'd seen a dozen boats coming in, but there were only five visible in the harbor. The next boat that came in, I watched carefully. To my amazement, it was plucked out of the water by a crane and placed on the wharf! In this harbor, most of the boats are kept on the wharf instead of in the water. That says something about the wind.
It looked as if the Jofian was getting closer to the breakwater, so I turned on the radar. The breakwater was 1/8 mile away. Half an hour later, it was still 1/8 mile away, so the anchor was holding.
When Roy wasn't back by six, I began to get worried and turned on the VHF in case he was trying to contact me, but a few minutes later, I saw something gleam on the beach. I looked through the binoculars and saw Roy with the plastic water jug. I watched him bring his Royak and paddle down to the edge of the water. Soon, he was paddling back to the Jofian. The wind was blowing from the land towards the boat, so I knew he wouldn't have any problem getting out here, but I was afraid the wind and waves would carry him right past the boat. I got a line ready to throw him, just in case, but he didn't need it; he grabbed the toerail and pulled himself along to the ladder. I tied his Royak line to the boat, took his paddle, cushion, and bag of shoes, and helped him lift the five-gallon water jug onto the deck. Then he scrambled up the ladder. It was sure good to have him back on the boat safe and sound!
After supper, we tried to get the shortwave radio to work. After a lot of fiddling, the UTC time signals came in. Then Roy got a program in French, but we don't know if it was coming all the way from France of from three blocks away.
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