The dogs survived the night without any problem although some of the older houses are not quite as waterproof as before. From Friday lunchtime until midnight there was 18.3mm precipitation. Then from midnight until 09:00 a further 22.1mm with more forecast: the sun is trying its hardest to break through the clouds as I write. There was quite a bit of rainfall during the night as I discovered later.
It had conveniently stopped raining at 04:25 when I woke up. The Early Walk, on wet sand, was invigorating and warm. I’d decided to wear my new (last October) coat which has the benefit of a liner and is waterproof. I could have done without the liner as the wind was blowing from the south so warm and humid. To get ahead of the game, I walked them around the circuit and then over the rocks. The passage over the lower section was problematic due to the southerly wind chasing the waves against the rocks.
The run was the next item on the agenda and I wanted to get as much out of the way in case the day ended as the one before with rain making the Evening Walk undesirable. I decided to go for 10km as I’d previously completed at least 5km marching the dogs around on the Promontory. There was little sign of rain when I set out however the final 2km were anything but dry. There was a clap or two of thunder and then down came the rain. The road quickly flooded and I had my kit sticking to me. The new iPhone is fortunately waterproof as it was in the pocket of my shorts.
I’d turned on the water heater before leaving so went directly to the shower with only a towel and a bar of soap. The water was beautifully warm enabling me to enjoy a restorative shower.
I’d not been back at the van long before I got a call from a customer who wished to leave. She’d paid for most of a month but we’d agreed to be flexible. She stayed only two nights which, in a way, was fortunate as she’s a bit of a vampire*. The Australian woman is also leaving but she was going to be here for only one or two days from the outset.
The remainder of the afternoon has been spent playing with my drone. It has not yet got off the ground under my command however it is a sight more complicated than the toy I was playing with previously. The flight controls are pretty much the same however there are also the camera controls also to consider. I understand that the secret is to only look at the drone during takeoff and landing: the remainder of the time should be only through the camera. The camera points forward or down so it’s necessary to rotate the drone in order to set up the shot. That way you should be able to see where you’re going and avoid running into anything. After all, the drone has a range of 5km so you’d need pretty good eyesight if you planned to follow it any other way than with the camera. It also has quite a high ceiling so it would soon become an almost invisible dot to the naked eye. The view through the camera is relayed back to the phone which runs the software and has the additional controls. The main, physical controls are on the controller which is connected to the phone.
It may be a little too windy for flying tomorrow so I will take the time to do other things, update all the software and have a quick session in practice mode. You use the controls but the drone itself doesn’t go anywhere.
The evening walk went well. All but Obi were off the lead as he has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that he cannot be trusted to return at the end of the walk. He simply goes back to the camping and winds up Georgia’s dogs to the detriment of everyone.
*emotional vampire who drains your energy
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