It looks like our plans may be thwarted. The weather has turned ugly – black ugly.

Last night we experienced our first ‘summertime’ thunderstorm. We missed most of it as we were dining out. We shared a courtesy car with two men from another boat and were invited to have dinner with them in a most amazing restaurant. To find a restaurant of this calibre in a small outpost of a town is astonishing. The decor was elegant and the food was exquisite and eclectic. All in all, outstanding. We didn’t even realise it had been raining until we left the restaurant.

Then we found out! It bucketed down. The lightning flashed, turning the black sky a neon purple. We arrived back at the boat drenched from our dash from the car. We thought it would cool the air. It did – to 30C (88F).

Today we thought of moving to another marina, as Dowry Creek’s wifi was down and we do not get a telephone signal from which to hotspot. Decided against the move, as this marina has a pool and we do not have a telephone signal at other marina’s, either. Besides, we were able to do a little more brightwork (varnishing) on Bushranger this morning before it got too hot. Then the heat set in again and all work stopped.

We sought relief in the air conditioned clubhouse – the only place with wifi – until it was time to once again board Bushranger for lunch and work detail. We have been having trouble with the smart plugs – the electrical connection from Bushranger to shore. They overheat and cut out. That means no air conditioning. Life was looking good. First the marina staff came to tell us that wifi to the marina had been restored and Mark completed installing new Smart Plugs. But…

We sat contentedly in Bushranger’s air conditioned comfort, catching up with the outside world when first the wifi stopped and then dreaded silence as the aircon stopped. Mark’s comment is not printable as he immediately thought the hours of work on the plugs was to no avail. It was with a strange sort of relief then that he found out that power had been cut off from the whole marina.

Then we heard an amazing noise getting louder and louder – wind rushing through the trees sounding like trains approaching. We looked out to find this lurking off our starboard quarter…

What we saw was what took out the marina and neighourhood power. As we conversed with the folks on the yacht next to us, the first drops fell, followed by the heavens opening. Hatches were quickly battened down. This meant stifling heat in Bushranger with no air conditioning. We thought of starting the generator but the storm brought cooler air so we held off.

The thunderstorms kept rolling in, one after another. They hit from every direction. The Pungo River roiled with white caps. Although Bushranger is tethered to the dock, she started the corkscrew motion. Sheet lightning lit up our interior, with fork lightning and thunder frighteningly close.

Steel grey skies, steel grey seas… forecast again for tomorrow. Think we may be staying here another day!

Might have to start polishing the inside brass work!

Such is Life!