Day 70 - Old and new friends
We expected some early morning rain so we reluctantly slept with our hatches and windows closed last night. Slept pretty well anyhow! Around 8am the weather came bringing very sudden unexpected winds with it. Captain got up dutifully to make sure we were holding well and to check boats around us. Sure enough, a boat who we had briefly met last night was drifting too close. I quickly donned on some clothes and a rain jacket and headed up deck to fend off if needed. Jordan was already up at the bow working to bring up the anchor while Eli managed the wheel. I yelled “What a beautiful morning” over to him over the wind and rain. We laughed and he replied “Yeah! I’m in a work meeting right now!” Ha! I can only imagine that zoom call while everyone just watched as he took off to save his boat. They handled the situation (which happens to us all at some point) really well and were off setting their anchor away from us in no time.
The rain was expected for a few hours so Kona and I hung out while Captain went back to bed. We really have become quite nocturnal with no plans and being here for a week! Thankful we walked Kona so late so I wasn’t in a hurry to get her to shore.
When Captain finally got up I declared I really needed ice cream coffee for breakfast so off we went. Captain had to pump water out of our dinghy and realized we could stop at the hardware store and get a tube we lost a few years ago to help make the job more efficient. Kona didn’t mind the stop; they hardware store invites her in and she gets treats.
My ice cream place was right next door, so as Captain took our new hose back to the dinghy Kona and I ordered fancy drinks. I don’t really care for the whip cream on top so I asked for my due to be giving in a cup for Kona. Oh my, that was a LARGE pup cup. Kona didn’t complain.
Dogs are also like people magnets. Of course, I should know that, but we made many friends just sitting on the bench outside of the ice cream shop. Everyone just loves her.
Down at the beach it was still very big seas. We brought Kona’s Frisbee but in the end the tennis ball was the game of choice in the wakes.
We got back to Ciara for a mid afternoon snack and were really thinking of maybe taking a short nap when Captain saw a cool looking trimaran sailboat coming into the anchorage. He called down to me and asked what the name of the trimaran we knew from the North Channel was. I remembered immediately that it was a blue hull named Kim’s Komfort. Captain looked through the looking glass to confirm it was him! We met Steve and his wife Kim at the Pool in the North Channel. Exchanged texts while they gave us valuable advice the rest of the time. We anchored next to him before we left at Crocker Island! Captain got on the VHF to say hi. He was in a holding pattern waiting for the fuel dock before he came back to anchor. He answered our hail but he hadn’t really “looked around” the anchorage yet so he didn’t recognize our boat name. As soon as we reminded him, he remembered ad promised he would stop by later. I really enjoy the ”small world” of boaters and how often we are seeing people we now know along the way.
Captain did lay down for a bit after that but stayed up on deck enjoying the breeze and fresh air. Steve did stop by a little later and came aboard for cocktails and we caught up. We noticed that Kim wasn’t with him and we found out she took a nasty step a few weeks ago while back at Drummond Island. Completely fell and broke three ribs and punctured a lung! She was taken to the hospital and then later transferred back home in the Chicago area so he was solo trying to get the boat home. That is horrible! We met another couple last year that the wife took a nasty fall and had to be transported back home. I have thought of her often this year and tried really hard to avoid very easy falls. This just re-confirmed that and I really hope Kim makes a full and relatively easy recovery.
Steve bid us good evening as he was going to get sailing early tomorrow and needed to go find dinner. Just as he left Jordan and Eli showed up just finishing their working day and were ready to take us up on another (for us) cocktail hour. We just met them the night before and found out they met at the UW in Madison so we were curious to know more about them and if we had mutual friends. Turns out we did have at least one mutual friend but more importantly the four of us hit it off just swimmingly! I was giving a tour to Eli and she saw our Mezuzah and asked if I was a MOT and found out she was as well. We chatted just about everything. I may have been excited to share freeze dried things when they took interest. I gave them a baggy of my bloody mix, a bag of ice cream, spaghetti sauce and raw chicken to take home! Ha! As the sun finally set, we all realized we should probably think about dinner. Captain and I were invited on board their boat for dinner! Something we just couldn’t turn down! We quickly took Kona to shore and then headed off to their boat for a wonderful meal and great company. Their boat is 30 feet I think and it felt very big inside. I loved the lay out and I loved the 70’s plaid furnishings. We stayed up with them until nearly 1am before we called it a night. They do, after all, have to work tomorrow! We walked Kona one last time as I knew I wasn’t getting up at 8am to walk her!
Captain and I are highly considering moving on Thursday, but even that is still up for debate as we are still loving it here. For sure staying Wednesday. I feel like the days are going super fast. Sleeping in and not really starting until noon may have something to do with it. In the meantime, I count my lucky stars that we can just find a place we like to “vacation” and stay as long as we like without having to worry about reservations or costs. Not a ton of pictures. I’m sure the same old beach photos are getting old, you’ll have to trust it’s not getting old walking it! Captain got some photos I need to grab from him, I’ll try and add those later.
