Glasses rescue and land excursions
I am allowing myself to sleep in which feels amazing but always makes me feel lazy at the same time. Our days are shifting to late starts, late ends. I might as well enjoy it as much as I can as the next week is going to be crazy and these are really the last few days Captain and I have all by ourselves for the entire summer.
Captain and I made some Bloody Mary’s with the mix Doc brought us as a gift. It was good. We have noticed how flavorful our mix is and nothing really compares now.
Fayette is in the upper peninsula of Michigan on another peninsula called Garden. There is a little town just north of here called Garden and a bay called, you guessed it, Garden Bay. Last year we decided to anchor there and check the place out. That is where we met the crew that came for dinner last night. That is also where we learned that the one Shell gas station in town also had an incredible meat counter. Even on the boating app that talks about the conditions in the anchorage mentioned this. And it is true, they do. We had gotten a steak from them last year and they were so good that we decided to take the scooter and long board eight miles up the road to get some. We had a lovely little excursion. Captains scooter can go faster then the scooter which is a bit terrifying but he loves that thing. We had an uneventful trip until we were just about back at Ciara. The state park’s paths are gravel and, in some spots, really thick gravel. We were headed down the hill and I was taking just a moment to step off my scooter as I knew I would bite the dust if I didn’t, only to see Captain taking the fall for me. Just a low-speed wipe out for him and some skinned knees and arms to show for it. He kept saying “Good thing I’m a kid of the 80’s, just rub some dirt on it and get over it.” I finally made him clean them up a little and in good sailor fashion he soaked a paper towel in vodka and gave it a good disinfection wipe down. Yikes!!! (yes, he wears a helmet on that thing!)
I have had a calling of a nap all morning so I allowed myself a quick half an hour nap. That one hit hard and was a bit to wake up from. I wanted to do so much more today and so I forced myself awake. We took Kona for a leashed walk down to the campsites and beyond to the beach there. Nice and sandy and no one there so she got some good ball and Frisbee time in. I also wanted to take a dinghy ride up against the escarpment since the waters had calmed down to allow so. Captain took me on a similar ride many years ago and I missed seeing things from that perspective and getting right up against the cliffs. We laughed as we saw a hiking sign at the base of the cliff. I guess the sign got to close to the edge!
The afternoon was getting on and now we were waiting for Doc to return to hopefully free dive for my glasses. We were chilling on Ciara and chatting with visitors while we waited. I saw a snapping turtle and admired the schools of fish hanging out here at the docks.
I was tempted to get over myself and go dive for the glasses myself. I’m 99% sure I could have done it. I just wimped out with the cold and not wanting to mess up the dive and end up burying my glasses in the silt. After seeing the snapping turtle, I laughed because those terrify me just as much as sharks as someone had teased me about not predators in the Great Lakes. Ha!
About 5:30 Doc and his daughter, Lydia, arrived. Doc had managed to talk her into trying for the dive first (see, I’m not the only one who doesn’t really want to go in!). I showed Lydia where it should be and went to our next door boat neighbor and politely asked if he would turn off his shore power (along with us) for a few minutes before we had a person in the water (For those of you who don’t know, swimming near marinas can be very dangerous as the boats have power lines connecting them to the docks and sometimes there can be shorts in-between and cause the water to be electric!). After the shore powers were off in she went! Goggles on she saw them right away and one dive and a few seconds later I had my glasses!
I welcomed Lydia back aboard with a half Gill (the Brittish Royal Navy daily rum ration) of Captain’s aged rum and a Ciara Crew T-shirt. She earned that for sure! We enjoyed a little more social time with Doc and Lydia before they headed back to Garden. I am so grateful.
Captain then made the most amazing steak dinner. Yeah, we really can tell the quality of these steaks. They melted in our mouths. The homemade mashed potatoes tasted as fresh as the meat, but they were Freeze-Dried.
I played Taps at 9pm as usual. Captain was flying the drone as I played and taking some amazing shots of Fayette. I took Kona to shore to play some Frisbee now that the park was “closed” for the evening. I wanted to go over to the Slag Beach for sunset so we packed Kona and the drone and walked over there for more sunset videos and enjoy the last bits of the day.
Back at Ciara we reviewed the footage and slowly quieted down for the night. We really love being in Fayette, it is such a unique place in itself, but especially being here as boaters. We will try and soak up as much of tomorrow as we can as well.
