Off shore breezes
Time and routine are starting to shift into a familiar theme. We allowed ourselves to sleep in, however when the sun comes up at four in the morning, sleeping in to 7 feels like really sleeping in. I blogged before Captain arose and then we headed to shore. There was a yoga class going on at the beach and I felt like they had a lovely backdrop for their morning stretches with Ciara off in the distance. We came back to Ciara and had a nice late brunch.
I am unsure I have ever posted a picture of our 10 Ship Commandments. I had to redo it as it got water damaged last week when we found all the leaks. I hung it back up and took a picture of you all. I can’t take credit for these as we picked them up from an old sailor that we watched a documentary on a few years back.
I played a little horn before we decided we wanted to take a long hike. We walked the same trail we did last week to the Lighthouse in reverse. It is a really nice five-mile hike and the weather has been so nice. The breeze keeps the bugs away and the shade from the for forest makes for a lovely stroll. Kona got some great beach time on the later half of the hike. The “beach” along that bay of the park is comprised of zebra muscle shells. Not fun on the feet, but Kona doesn’t care. The zebra muscles are invasive having come in from the ocean liners that work the Great Lakes. They are filter feeders and are doing a wonderful job of making the waters clear. This comes at a great cost to the overall ecosystem though. We do have a thriving and growing population of Pelicans because of them and in our nine years up here we have seen sightings go from extremely rare to watching hundreds of them flying overhead at a time. Very cool birds.
When we returned to Ciara about two hours later the off shore breezes had picked up as well as the crowds that had started to gather for the weekend at the park. We spent the afternoon people watching and binoculars on hand. Sure enough, while we were watching a rental pontoon attempt to anchor too close to us we heard a splash and “HELP!” in the bay. We saw two folks that were on rented stand up paddle boards. One had fallen off his board (NO TEATHER!). His board was immediately drifting away from him and heading out to sea. Thankfully he had a life jacket on but his partner left him in the water to try and retrieve the board. So many things can happen so fast in these waters. Off shore breezes are very dangerous as they are very deceptive to land dwellers. I was concerned right away and about three minutes of watching the situation get more dangerous Captain decided it was time to step in. He grabbed some extra line and hopped in the dinghy to rescue the two. I watched from a distance as the swimmer finally got his board back and struggled to get back on after being in the cold water for about 10 minutes. Captain helped and then tied their boards to our dinghy and towed them back to shore. Back on shore they got a refund and Captain really let the rental company have a lecture about not having tethers on the boards and also not advising people to the active beach and small water craft advisory in the bay.
I was starving for an early dinner and we had my marinated flank steak already! Dinner at four in the afternoon was incredibly good. Paired beautifully with my Freeze-Dried mashed potatoes. :D
We spent the evening chilling on board and people watching. Kona seems very content and happy with boat life. The winds finally calmed down in the early evening and ironically all the boats left, so we were all alone again! Captain was able to do a sunset drone flight and get some pictures/videos of me playing Taps from the bow. It is hard to fly and do camera work at the same time, but he doesn’t mind the practice :D
We took Kona for her night walk after TAPs. While ashore we saw another anchor light in the bay. Somewhere in the short time we left to go to shore another sailboat came and joined us in the anchorage. Yay!
The night had calmed to a still. After a day of strong off shore winds we were gifted glass water and clear skies. We ended our evening with drinks on deck by lantern light. Looking at the stars, counting shooting stars and our realizing all of our good fortunes are right in front of us.
