Fresh Blueberry Lemonade
We aren’t going anywhere today, yay! We had a cooler night and all slept really well. I was up at my normal 7ish time anyhow and writing up a very long blog. Around 9am Captain got up and we took Kona to shore. Kona enjoyed smelling and rolling around on shore while Captain found some blueberries to add to his mornings breakfast.
He made some pancakes for himself and Cory as well as some bacon so I could enjoy that with my Bloody Mary. I was just finishing up my Bloody and posting my blog late morning when our friends from Arabesque came over. I had told them to join us for Bloodies, but I wasn’t sure and hadn’t waited for them. Nonetheless, me being done with mine let me do my second favorite role after 1st mate and that is being bartender Debbie. I ooo’ed and ahh’ed them as I showed how I reconstitute the drinks and they enjoyed them very much. Our friends on Lucia (I may be spelling that wrong) also came over and we repeated the presentation. The kids all took little sips and even asked for a virgin one, of which I obliged. They ended up not really liking it like they thought so I was thankful I had only made them a small cup. I finished that virgin myself. Waste not!
After a morning of good company I got started on all the dishes. I was telling Richard I would really love a short nap and some time to read and go on a hike today. I’m about half way through my book and really starting to get into it. It is over 800 pages, so I’ve got a ways to go yet. Everyone from the other boats were going hiking not long after our get together so by the time dishes were done, we were headed to shore to hike to the other side with everyone. Cory and Captain packed bags for blueberry picking. The hike was nice and not overgrown very much which is nice. I always enjoy this island with its large pink granite playgrounds full of berries. On the other side we got a glimpse of one of the very small anchorages that is fully protected from high rocks. Steep enough that I wouldn’t allow Kona or the kids near it. One dropped stick and that girl would have gone over the edge without even thinking.
The younger kids have really taken to us, our boat and Cory. Cory had offered to turn the blueberries everyone was picking into blueberry Lemonade and the kids all really wanted to help. So, when we returned to Ciara Cory got to sorting the berries and cleaning them right away. It Cory awhile and when they were ready, we radioed over to the other boats and their parents shuttled them over in their dinghy’s. We spent the afternoon with four additional children on board all thoroughly enjoying helping Cory, finding all our sugar (candy) aboard and asking for more. A bi-product of making the blueberry syrup was basically blueberry jam. The kids devoured that. I even pulled out my fancy crackers (because I didn’t have Ritz as requested) which they thought was even more grand and they all ate them with their pinky fingers extended….because they were fancy. They were so inquisitive of all things aboard. They found my Rubik’s cubs and asked me to solve it, which I did. I then taught one of the older boys to solve it which was really neat.
Later in the afternoon all the parents came back to collect their kids and brought some appetizers for us all to enjoy. We gave everyone Blueberry Lemonade and added lead to the adult drinks for whomever wanted some. It is crazy, but by then it was already nearing 7pm when everyone left for dinner. Since the party had been at our boat all day Arabesque invited all of us to their boat for dinner. Everyone bring their food and eat there. That sounded nice. We headed down below and made a big pot of Cheesy Bacon Potato soup that was Freeze Dried. I did dishes (again) while we waited for the hot water for both dishes and soup to come up to temperature. All the lemonades making and consuming left a good number of dishes that I didn’t want to deal with later.
We had a lovely dinner on Arabesque. I looked at my watch and it was already half an hour to 9pm. They kids had all asked if I was going to play my trumpet again; of course I was. The entire crew was wanting to head to the rocks to see the sunset which would follow Last Post by half an hour.
I should mention the day has been pretty windy. Actually, very windy. By the time we were headed to shore for sunset the gusts even in the anchorage were insane. The day had been clear and beautiful all day. Hot, but with the strong breeze it was quite lovely. Now the skies had turned very hazy and that eerie red that we haven’t seen in awhile…..wildfire smoke. Needless to say, the spot we had all come to, to watch the sunset, was very exposed to the other side of the island. Playing Last Post while trying not to get pushed over from the wind was crazy. Everyone cheered and hooted afterwards. I enjoyed the crashing waves on the windward side for awhile but the laides and I retreated to the lee shortly after we were done playing in the wind. You could hardly talk to each other. On the other side we sat in quiet and had a great chat while the kids explored for snakes and whatever else they could find. Kona fetched sticks. Not sure what the men were thinking but they all hung out in the wind for a long time. Eventually they came over to our side and were saying “oh, its much nicer here, you can talk!” Funny coming from a bunch of sail captains they didn’t realize that sooner!
Captain and I have had some issues charging our dinghy battery on solar and it turns out we barely had enough battery to get us to the sunset location, especially since we were fighting those winds so bad. Thankfully our friends gave us a tow on the way back. The flotilla of three small boats all headed back to our larger boats for the evening giggling all the way.
Tomorrow, we have to get a pump out. We are pushing our luck. So, we headed to bed as soon as we could around 11pm. It appears that all three boats will be following us to Little Current and then just a little further to Heywood Island for the night. The plan is for all of us to stay there tomorrow and then Thursday head into MacGregor Bay and channels. This will be new for Ciara Madeline and I’m very excited as I have really wanted to get to this area. It is a bit intimidating on the charts, but the crew of Lucia have been up in there before and will be our guide. It is pretty rare that we get to move with other boats. We often find our own wind and different schedules. It appears for the next week we have company and that makes me very excited. I only have to get on and off those docks at Little Current tomorrow….
