A Rainy Day in Paradise

What do you do in paradise when it rains? If you are in an anchorage that has a dock you can dinghy into shore and do things there that you would do if it weren't raining. Being in an anchorage without a dock poses a problem. If it is raining then usually the swells are such that it is difficult if not dangerous to beach a dinghy, the only way you would have to get ashore. That means you have to remain on the boat and do things there.
The last two days have placed us in the latter category. We are anchored in Mt. Irvine Bay and there is no dock here that we could tie the dinghy to. So, you ask, what have we done to keep ourselves occupied? Yesterday the rain was intermittent so we were able to do some work on deck. Today it has been raining almost constantly - more rainy periods than no rain.
Yesterday Griff rewired the windlass and got it working again. He says he still needs to take the actual windlass apart to determine why it overheated in the first place. He'll get to that if it stops raining today. Because this anchorage is very rolly, we tried to put out a stern anchor in an effort to hold the bow or stern into the swells. This didn't work because the anchor would not set, hold, properly.
One thing that has been bothering both of us is that because we do not have an internet connection we have not been able to access weather forecasts. Griff took the time today to look at our SSB connection and was able to access two weather sites and we will now receive two forecasts daily - one at midnight and one at 2 AM. This means that when we check at 8 AM we will be able to see what to expect weather wise for the day. This is great for peace of mind - knowing if stormy weather is on its
way or if we can safely stay where we are.
I have been able to fine tune our water collection system. It still needs a little bit more, but we have been able to collect about 15 liters of rain water in 24 hours. We are catching the run-off from the bimini in two places. At the back corner I have taken an empty water bottle with the bottom cut off and hung it upside down between the bimini supports. At the mid-point of the bimini side, I tied a bucket between the winches on the side of the cockpit. The other fine tuning I would like to
do is to put some sort of drain into the water bottle and attach it to a hose that we could then run directly to our water jerry cans or our boat water tanks. I have an idea on how to do that, but we'll need some dry weather to do it.
We have taken the opportunity to shower in the rain. It may not have been a hot shower, but it was refreshing until the wind came up and the rain started to pelt down - not unlike turning a shower head onto massage.
We have also been doing some typical rainy day activities - reading, playing Scrabble or crib, and discussing where we are going from here both literally and figuratively. As you can see we have managed to keep ourselves occupied even though it is raining. And of course we are still in paradise so who's complaining!!!!