Wish I were a weather forecaster here. It’s gorgeous most of the time. But when it’s not and you screw up, you still get paid even though people have depended on you. I guess it’s like being a government employee.

One Daily News article said “Sunday could be better….with the rain dissipating, leaving partly cloudy skies.”   Weather underground said, ” 70% chance of rain on Saturday and 30% on Sunday”. Mary Ann is back for a short time, so we FINALLY decided to take a day (Sunday) off to kayak to Buck Island with Mary Ann and Karen.

It was partly cloudy when we left Solitude Bay, but it looked like there might be a shower coming. Seas were choppy and it was windy. Then once we got through the reef, the swells were pretty good size, too (3-5 feet, I’d say). But our Hobie Mirage pedal kayaks were up to the task of getting us safely across the salty divide.

I was holding Goliath and we’d get splashed occasionally. He was not a happy camper. When we got out to the beach at Buck, we spread our towels on a picnic table and chowed on veggies and two different dips, organic chips and salsa, brie and crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, chocolate chunk cookies from Schooner Bay and white wine (Michael had rum and coke). The sky started sputtering, but we were happily eating and watching some pearly-eyed thrashers teach their young to beg food from picnickers. And we were on the lee side of the island, so it was warm and pleasant.

While we went for a walk, the birds tried to get at the triscuits. Some adventurers living on their sailboat, visiting the islands from Wisconsin, shooed them away while we were gone.  It became windy as we walked around to the south side, where Goliath met a little poodly-type friend and shared a squirt or two.

When we got back to our table it was raining. So we went into the water and chatted with other crazy folks out at Buck on a crappy day. Goliath huddled under the picnic table staying out of the rain and away from the Wisconsin children, whose parents told us that one of the little ones was complaining about having to go to another beach! They seemed to be having a real blast, though.

I brought my big warm sweatshirt, but didn’t want it to get soaked, so Michael and I shared a damp towel trying to keep warm. It wasn’t overwhelmingly cold because we were back on the west side, but when we walked the other way toward the north side, it looked and felt  like the North Sea (it was sooo much colder in the wind), so we headed back to the relative shelter of the  ‘yaks.

An older gentleman came over to check out the kayaks and when Michael went to show him the pedal mechanism, he noticed that Karen’s was broken, so only one of her flippers was flapping. We weren’t quite sure when it had broken, and we decided that we might have to tow them back if it was going to be a problem.

Norma Jean came over from her boat to gab for a while, the rain got heavier and we resisted the idea of getting back out in the wind and choppy sea. A few times, the showers were so heavy that we couldn’t see St. Croix, and we were not quite sure exactly where the beach we were returning to was.

We eventually got into the boats and headed back during a break in the rain action. Goliath and I huddled with our only (now pretty wet towel) to ward off the chill from the wind and the splashing water. He was even less happy this time. Even though his life jacket isn’t very comfortable for him, it keeps him somewhat warm, but not necessarily happy.

Just as we were getting back to the iffy part of the journey where the reef is, a rain squall came through and our visibility went way down again. We made it safely through though, and Karen’s husband, Ken was waiting for us on shore when we got back.

She had been joking that he’d probably been checking her life insurance policy while he was supposed to be watching football.

Anyway, Ken helped us get the kayaks back on the vehicles and we were happy to get into a somewhat dry Land Rover. The rovers are not Goliath’s favorite mode of transportation, but he was so happy to be out of the kayak and off the water, that he’d probably have settled for a Conestoga wagon.

It will be sooo nice when we have a calm and normal life, living on a sailing catamaran and can take off to any other island when the weather is good…..

Sure, whatever.  

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 4:16 am and is filed under St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.