Day 78 - Drone views of Ciara
We slept amazing. The temps have cooled and not having to go anywhere for a day or so helps. Kona has been such a good girl this summer and being very patient with our lazy mornings. It was late morning before we got to shore. I did my tippity tap tap while we had some breakfast and had a long phone conversation with Captain’s middle child who lives down in Peoria. We haven’t seen Evelyn in a long time and they need a break so we made a pitch for them to make a trip up here and see us.
On shore we decided to go look at all the eggs that have been moved to the library, all in one spot. I took photos of almost all them but only going to post my favorite ones. How fun to see how each artist beautifully transformed the eggs using many different techniques or thinking “outside of the egg.” While we were enjoying our stroll, we got note that our friend and fellow sailmaker was headed our way. He had some of our cloth and Captain wanted it back to do some repairs that were needed. Adam is going to make us a custom shade that we can set up while at anchor that works well with our boat. He had just gotten a new drone that would let him take much more accurate measurements and he wanted to fly it around Ciara. We met him back at the marina and got to see his new toy. Drones have come a long way! It was cool to see Ciara from all these angles and I’m posting my favorites from his data stick he passed on to us. Captain got to fly the drone a bit and now we are both talking about getting a drone. These things can just “follow” you around as well so if you wanted to do a tour or film single handed, you can. Needless to say, Captain and I are now considering getting a drone. I don’t add videos as my web host has limited those for what I am paying, plus I don’t really know that medium really well. We realize that there is a lot more story to share and see this way and maybe this will become a new hobby and something we can add to this story next year.
The pizza was really good last night and both of us were craving it again this evening so we hung out on Ciara for the rest of the afternoon before we headed to dinner. I re-did Captains braids. The last ones lasted over two weeks and his beard has grown significantly since then. I added some flare by wrapping the braids now he looks even more Viking then ever. Adam joined us as his dinner plans got canceled and we enjoyed an evening by the campfire meeting folks from all over. One family that joined us had a very inquisitive young son who asked us a lot of questions about sailing and our boat. It was neat.
While we were enjoying our evening, I got a call from Evelyn saying they were coming up tomorrow for a few days!!! Captains heart overflowed. I can tell he misses her and is really looking forward to having her here as she hasn’t been on Ciara, we think, since 2021.
With Evelyn coming it looks like Egg Harbor will be our last stop on our 2025 adventure. We are scheduled to be driving home on Tuesday which means sailing the last three and a half hours on Monday or Sunday. Both days, according to that ever-reliable weatherman, are crap so I will just hold out and try not let it stress me. Captain reminds me that if it really not good then we will return late. Thankful there is nothing too pressing when we get home on Tuesday, but we’d like to be there for things going for back to school the rest of the week if possible, but not mission critical. Safety is always a better call. For now, we wait and enjoy what we have left. My heart sank a little this morning as I pondered “I will be home this time next week.” It is apparent that both Captain and I are very settled aboard and not sure we are ready for the summer to come to a close. The quick weekends up here don’t seem to make as much sense anymore even though that is what we did for six years in a row. Even a five-day weekend seems to just get us used to being on board.
