The storm clouds were slow to leave the area today, but the wind finally settled down. The water in the fairway between B Dock and C Dock was completely calm by late afternoon and it was hard to believe that it had been so windy yesterday.

After a very windy and rainy weekend, the storm is finally on its way out of our area. The wind continued to gust this morning, with rain showers that were heavy at times. The wind finally died down by mid-afternoon, even though rain showers are continuing into the evening.

Thankfully, the intense storm winds that had been forecast for last night never materialized, as the storm center veered further north than expected, and the low actually made landfall on Vancouver Island. Our wind was still noisy and blustery, but as it turned out, the strongest winds occurred in the late afternoon on Sunday. However, the rain increased in the evening hours and continued most of the night.

It’s time for us to get started preparing the boat for winter. We like to get things that can be damaged by winter weather moved off the boat and into our marina storeroom for protection from the elements. Things that we keep on deck, like our barbecue, LifeSling, dinghy outboard, and even the inflatable dinghy (it can be deflated and moved). More storms like yesterday are likely to occur over the winter months, and anything out in the elements can be damaged or even blow away!

Since the ramps from the docks to the shore at Anacortes Marina can be extremely steep during periods of low tide, we try to haul heavy things when the tide is high and the ramps are easier to manage. We had a high tide this afternoon, so decided to start getting some of the heavy things off the boat and up to the storeroom. During a break between rain showers we used the dinghy-hoisting winch to take the outboard off the dinghy and move it to the storeroom. We thought we might get a few more things hauled while the tide was high, but the rain increased enough that we decided to postpone any more hauling to another day.

Somebody mentioned that we haven’t posted any photos of our Persian kitties recently, so thought this was a good time to insert a couple of kitty photos—one of Rosie and one of Mickey. They both enjoy life on the boat.

Rosie can get very focused and she is showing off her intense look here.

Mickey loves to relax on his back on top of the galley counter and let it all hang out!