Saturday, July 20

No progress today. The wind blew all night last night and all day today. We estimate it at between 35 and 40 miles per hour based on how hard it pushes on our bodies as we stand against it. At least it is cooling which is nice since we can’t put the sun shade up in this wind. It is just blowing too hard, so we gave up after a little trying. We sat around most of the day with nothing to do. This is harder on Mike than it is on me. I can sense his frustration at just sitting here and I reminded him not to hurt himself. We have been swimming in the one little part of our beach which is protected from the wind a little. We also spent some time fishing without good result. Mike has been snorkeling and says it is great, but I don’t want to risk anymore ear problems since I am a little concerned about our situation here. We are twenty four miles from land in one direction and thirty in the other direction. If the wind doesn’t die down in the next few days we could be in a difficult situation. We may have to leave the island in the wind if we start to run out of water. We will be pretty light by then and with the empty water bottles in our boats we won’t sink, but we could have a lot of difficulty making land. At least the water is warm enough that hypothermia won’t be an issue. Between the wind and the current we could be pulled pretty far north in a couple hours. That could mean we would have to go all the way to land in one paddle. Also, the main land falls away significantly to the north, which would mean a longer pull. It could mean we would have to paddle over thirty miles at one time once we commit ourselves. This with water breaking over the deck the whole time and filling the hold. The boat goes much slower full of water. I shipped about five gallons of water in 10 miles yesterday. Fifteen gallons weighs 120 lbs which makes the boat very hard to push. If we must do that I will duct tape the hatches closed before we leave and hope for the best. For the moment we still have food and water for several days. When we swim the sea lions are very curious and interested in all we do. They keep a little distance, but watch us the whole time. We made camp up the beach a way in order to disturb them as little as possible, but that puts us in a location which is more exposed to the wind. The good thing about this is that we are familiar with the wind and note every change. Meanwhile the food is good as always and I have Mike’s Armada book to read.