Day 79 - Sun and preparation for a special guest
What a beautiful morning! Captain and I were up and moving this morning at a reasonable hour. As we took Kona to shore the other sailboat that had anchored nearby later in the day yesterday was taking their dinghy back to their boat. We stopped and chatted. The lady first spoke “you didn’t play Taps last night!” Never met her. Apparently, they had been near us over the last many years and since we are so recognizable they knew that I played. I often wonder about that…and now I know :D We explained we weren’t on the boat at 9pm so I didn’t play and sadly they were leaving in a few hours and wouldn’t be around tonight. Neat couple, hope to cross paths with again.
We took Kona for a walk up to the grocery store where I picked up some vermouth, limes and some dog food. I am nervous that Kona girl’s supply isn’t going to quite make it a few more days. After we had our chore done we headed back to Ciara. With a guest expected we decided it would be a good day to clean up Ciara. I was able to play the conch to wish sailing vessel Happiness (the couple we had met that morning) goodbye. The sun was out, the wind was cool, it was beautiful outside. I took my time straightening out the boat while Captain took a bit of time to fill up the dinghy with water to make a tub to clean some of his clothes and then Kona’s bed which was in desperate need of a clean. Poor Kona watched Captain with her bed with great concern. Captain broke our beloved bucket which has already undergone multiple fixes so he headed down to work on that. I chatted with my dad a bit on the phone. I had prepped the deck to be cleaned with said bucket and now the deck had soap on it an no way to rinse. I remembered that we actually have a “sea water washdown” pump on board. We have never used it in all these years. Captain wasn’t even sure it worked and claimed it took a lot of power. But we decided to try. We hooked up the hose and just turned it on. It worked! It does draw a bit of power but we had good sun and it was so fun to wash the deck at anchor with a hose! I had dawned on a bikini top as it was hot out. By the time I was done with the deck and had Evelyn’s bed all cleared out I was unexpectantly tired. Knowing Evelyn wouldn’t be in until early evening and that we had a late night more then likely I gave into the nap. And I slept well! Almost until 5pm. I woke up with a small burn on my back so I may have just gotten a little too much sun.
After I awoke we chilled out on board reading and enjoying the beautiful day until we got the call just shy of 7pm that they were here! We eagerly jumped on the dinghy to shore to go get them. Kona could tell and stood at attention all the way to shore, her tail wagging more and more aggressively as Evelyn came into view!
Evelyn has lost their sea legs! They tenderly hopped on board back to Ciara to drop off their items before we headed back to shore for pizza (again!).
We got back to shore about ten minutes before sundown. Many people had gathered on the hill to watch. A gentleman was playing some native flute that was being piped through the speakers on the hill creating a calm, meditative sunset that had the hill eerily quiet as everyone watched the setting sun. We stopped at the top to enjoy the sunset all together, our first sun set in many years.
After the sun was set we quickly (is it ever quick?) went to chat with the family of 4 that was on the little sailboat that had anchored next to us today. What a cool family! A very young (in their 20’s) Indian couple with their parents who were visiting all the way from India. I could have chatted with them a long time! They live in Baraboo, not to far from us and are new to sailing around here. I hope we run into them again.
We headed off to pizza. Three nights in a row. The pizza is that good. It felt a little like the movie Ground Hog’s Day as after three nights, we now seem to have a routine. Around the campfire we caught up with Evelyn and made friends around the fire. It occurred to me as Captain went around and asked everyone where they were from that there is a part of him (us?) that likes to not only meet people but that likes to tell stories. Captain found an interested party that marveled at him telling our grand adventures over a fire. It seemed primitive. It seemed like ghost stories around a campfire when I was little. How neat that we have all this to share and that this Viking of a man is at the center of the story throwing in all the descriptors to bring everyone along on the story, hanging on every word.
After three nights of pizza my tummy finally had enough. Or maybe my lack of gallbladder. I haven’t had that “after dinner pain” in awhile and I was needing to walk and go lay down so we left. It helps that they turned off the fire at 10pm as in to say “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Back at Ciara I laid down and listened while Evelyn and Captain caught up. We are so glad to have them aboard and look forward to spoiling them tomorrow.
