toilets, laundry and Block Island Race week

Wednesday
After a great night of sleep we woke to a surprise: the head wouldn't empty. This is always a sad moment as the skipper knows he has to roll up his sleeves. We looked at the holding tank meter and it showed full, which was a surprise as we thought we had emptied the tank yesterday. we called channel 78 for a pumpout. When help arrived I knew i should have stood back as the attendant stood 10 feet away as i unscrewed the head tank access screw. He mentioned "she might blow!" I unscrewed and he was right was waste gushed up 6 inches. Fortunately we hadnt showered yet and Dave was ready with kitchen towels to clean up and stop leakage into the harbor.

with hosepipe in hand we scrubbed the deck and promptly went to the showers.

As we prepared to disembark, we noticed hundreds of race boats heading out of the harbor to start their racing. We joined the line. It was much like being on a highway and approaching roadworks: the traffic slows and backs up. If you go to a Block Island chart you will see that the channel is narrow (50 yds) and we were at low tide. Thus everyone was slowing to go through in single file. Of course there was no room for drift so it was with relief that we got through and out into open waters. Then fog came. We are on 1 hour watches with radar on and there is a live fire excercise south of us. What a fun day. Will report in later.