If it was a toaster, Captain could fly it
Captain and I returned to Ciara on Wednesday afternoon. The kids finished school (we now have all high schoolers!) and my kids went to their dads for the summer. I thought I was okay with this change in plans, but it does feel weird to not have them the entire summer. Cory is home for just a bit to soak in the summer with their friends and go to camp before they join us. The weather wasn’t going to let us sail out of the marina on Wednesday so we took our time getting up north. We were excited to see that the one restaurant in Cedar River was actually open on Wednesday (they had not updated their off-season times online) so we went there for dinner after we got Ciara loaded with the little unpacking we had. This town is so small that not only did they recognize us when we walked in, they knew our drink orders! Captain remembered we had told them about our Bloody Mary mix last year so he took a few glasses worth of samples in for the owner. I was a bit surprised when she poured herself a taste and then offered the other half of the sample to another patroon at the bar. Totally not kosher but I was honored. You can get away with that up north, I guess. As you can guess, they really loved our mix.
The repairs Captain made before we left looked better then how we remembered we left them. The dinghy had a lot of water in it indicating we had quite a bit of rain in the three days we were gone. We were happy to see that most of the leaks had been stopped and Ciara was tidy and dry inside.
We had a good window to leave Cedar River on Thursday morning so we were up and moving around 6am. Took our time at the marina and moved our car closer to the ranger so it wasn’t sitting all by its lonesome by our empty slip for weeks on end. The wind in the marina was calm, but it was pushing our bow down the wrong direction as we disembarked. This used to happen a LOT at our old marina. Not only from wind but there was a current running through that marina. We had a method to hold the bow back so we could turn in the narrow marina. It always had me biting my nails. Today, while unprepared to do that maneuver, we didn’t need it because our fairways are so HUGE! Captain was able to Austin Power his turn out of there with room to spare. I LOVE this feature of our marina.
Once clear of the channel we lifted sails for, yet again, a lovely sail on a starboard tack. I was able to read. I was able to do a little arts and crafts project (see picture). I played some trumpet and took pictures. Captain had some Little Debbie Apple Pies and I enjoyed a boiled egg! The boiled eggs are new because we have refrigeration!!!
We departed at 8am and arrived back where we just were in Nicolet Bay around noon. Defiantly not a fast sail, but we had no where to be. We sailed as close to the escarpment and tour boats as we could before we came into the wind and lowered our sails. Captain does love a good show. There were a number of boats already in the bay, but all of them were day boaters, they would be gone before dinner. No issues dropping anchor, Carl and all.
We took Kona girl for a little walk and then came back to Ciara for a relaxing afternoon. Something about the first few days (every time we go home it resets) on board that makes us super tired and out of sorts with routine. We made bacon and bloodies for brunch and snacked on some junk food throughout the day. I pulled some flank steak and marinated it for dinner and attempted to reconstitute some cheese better. That is still a work in progress. I read some more.
The winds were still pretty calm at the anchorage so Captain pulled out our brand-new toy…a drone! He was able to fly it a few times back home but he already figured he was good enough to take off and land it on a moving boat. Yes, we are still moving at anchor, just swinging around and not going anywhere. I promise we intend on getting those videos and pictures up but I do think the majority of those will come in the off season when we have unlimited power and band width!
His first flight went really well and he landed the drone perfectly. I didn’t have my camera handy to catch that. Captain has three batteries so after little break, he was determined to do another flight. The drone is really smart. Like really smart. It will return home before it runs out of battery and a lot of other things. He had the drone way over at Horseshoe island when the return home alarm came on. Then about a mile away it alerted us it was encountering high winds. Commence nail biting. Sure enough we heard and saw it soon enough (We need a name for it). Captain brought the drone into his prescribed landing line up and the little annoying low battery alarm started to get really insistent. The winds were not helping and the controller was telling us to LAND NOW! Captain kept his cool. I held my breath and he landed it. The video says it all, the way we look at each other afterwards and just laughed.
There is a joke I have said about Captain for many years. I was in a bad car accident way back in high school. I’m fully healed and for the most part I have very little PTSD from it. I didn’t even know what that was until much later in life, but I suffered a lot with trusting people to drive me especially in none perfect conditions. Because of that I spent most of my life being the primary driver. That changed when I met Richard. Yes, he can drive very sport like but there is something about him that is HIGHLY competent and unless he really pushes my limits, I ride like the passenger princess I am all the time saying “Captain could fly a toaster.” Well, yes, he can, in fact, fly a toaster and just about maneuver any vehicle given his command. After he landed that scary landing I said it again “You really CAN drive anything can’t you?” And we also noted that instead of me saying “Babe, babe, BAAAABE” when pushing it to far the drone has a “Babe, babe, BABE” mode built in for me (hence the overly persistent warning alarm). We laughed pretty hard and long after that. Thankful our new, expensive, toy wasn’t at the bottom of Nicolet Bay.
Neither of us felt hungry for dinner and we made the mistake of a late afternoon nap. I forced myself up around 7pm. There was a little weather coming so I shut the hatches and portals while Captain continued to rest. He got up but then fell back asleep again in the saloon while I read some more. At 9pm I played Taps and we took Kona girl to shore one last time.
Not wanting to make a big dinner at 10pm but not wanting to not eat at all we made some ramen and hung out for a few hours before calling it a late night.
We will have big winds up here the next many days. Not sure we will make it out of the Bay or further then across the bay to Horseshoe Island for a bit. We have some friends locally who want to go for a day sail so we can keep our fingers crossed for a window of opportunity. We are under small craft advisory. Captain says “good thing we aren’t a small craft!” Well, when tucked into a perfect bay, the conditions aren’t so bad either!
There is plenty to do, or not do, so we go with what the wind says and for now that is to stay put and enjoy life at anchor.
