Mindful hiking
We had some really good thunder booms overnight. I seemed to sleep through them pretty well all things considered. Our guests, not so much. Combined with the “this is a sailboat, not quite a Royal Caribbean” comforts it was a little rough.
We were mostly all up around 8am. Collin, who was too big for his bunk was pretty tired and opted to try catching up on some sleep on a bigger bunk while Captain, Sarah and I went to shore to walk Kona.
Everything seemed pretty quiet on shore, being a Monday, however there were signs that the park was busier than we had seen so far this year. It is, after all, the week before a major holiday so there are more folks on vacation. Our coffee truck was open which was a good sign, although we opted for no coffee.
Back on Ciara we made some breakfast tacos while I blogged and everyone slowly woke up. Finally around noon we were all ready to take a little hike to the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. Captain and I have really walked this park a lot this year. I find it funny because in all the years before we moved marinas, we hardly made it here as it was just a little too far for a weekend trip yet now, with our marina across the bay, this is our closest getaway!
Sarah and Collin aren’t quite the hikers we are so we took an easy pace on the nice bike path. We enjoyed the views at the lighthouse and took the slightly less flat route home. I was admiring the trees on the hike and our guests were saying they kept forgetting to look as they were watching their feet for the roots. It lead to a conversation about mindfulness. I recalled how when I went through my really hard times I ran to the forest. “You can’t focus on your woes, when you are focused on your toes” I said. Captain said “Did you just make that up??” That’s great!” Yep, it just came out, but it is true. The first step I learned in healing was to distract thoughts and focus on the moment. Still works to this day, even if not upset, the peace that comes from a hike is undeniable.
When we returned to Ciara, we found the anchorage hopping! Despite the high winds there were a ton of boats that had come in for the day. All the rental pontoons make Captain super nervous so we were glad to hang out on deck for the afternoon. We stopped at Endeavor, one of the catamarans here and talked with Rogge. He invited us over for happy hour later. We spent the afternoon people watching and monitoring the poor anchoring of the pontoons around us. I pulled out some Freeze-Dried raw flank steak and prepared it to marinate overnight with a family favorite recipe. This was my first time reconstituting this food and it came back amazingly! The color and smell, all of it, could have passed as raw straight from the butcher. There was a lot of extra juices in the water before I put it in the marinate and we will find out tomorrow if that effected the overall product. I am optimistic about it. I succumbed to a short but needed boat nap. By late afternoon we had six (!) sailboats anchored out and one small powerboat that appeared to be staying for the night. This is by far the most folks we have seen out this year We headed over to Endeavor for a nice happy hour and were joined by Dennis from the other catamaran on Red Nib. Both men are accomplished sailors and have epic stories and advice. We even got a tour of his catamaran which is always fun.
Dinner was spaghetti with my homemade meat sauce that was, of course, Freeze-Dried. This meal was over two years stored and perfect.
Every last one of us was pretty tired after dinner. It is pretty warm (although I hear the rest of the country is really hot right now so I am not going to complain too loudly) and humid. It had gotten to me at least and I was counting time until Taps and Kona’s final walk. We sat on deck and watched the winds build and then die off, shift and sway. I played Taps at 9. We were getting ready to go to shore we heard a conch shell! It was Dennis! We quickly grabbed both of our shells and had a conch off between the boats for a few moments. It was fun. Captain stopped by Red Nib on the way to shore and we had a good laugh about the conch off. He is a Vietnam vet, he also appreciated my Taps and said it was perfect. <3
Captain and I enjoyed a private walk ashore with Kona having left Sarah and Collin to man the ship. Glad the weather has cleared to let us enjoy this week a bit. Will be able to hang here at the state park at least through tomorrow. May have to head back across the bay on Wednesday, but we are watching the weather. For tonight, just a small chance of rain, so we closed the hatches but left the windows open, willing to get up and shut those in a hurry if needed, but desperate for any cool air we could bring inside.
