Soaking up Covered Portage
Captain and I got up early enough to watch Lucia depart just before 8am. He flew his drone as they left. His phone is full so we are now having issues getting the data off the drone. There is some trouble shooting to be done there and I have more conviction that I need to spend our winter time cleaning up our excessive number of pictures and videos from the last many years.
I didn’t play the conch for Lucia as it was early and the anchorage was very quiet. I sat up deck for awhile and listened to the bird calls echo off the quartz walls. I watched Cormorants emerge from the still waters and dry their wings and then take off, filling the silence with the whoosh whoosh of their takeoff. Other boaters glided to shore with dogs on the bow, looking for their morning relief.
We tuned into the LCYC show and listened as well as we could. We are well protected by high rocks here. Our check in had to be relayed by other boaters. By mid-morning the anchorage was emptying out. Lucia’s friend, James on Bacchus, left mid-morning as well. He is going to meet up with Don who has taken over Lucia later and I hope we run into them again. I did blow the conch for him.
I wrote my blog, Captain made gouda bagels, Cory slept in. I really want to hike but we decided one more rest day was probably prudent. I spent a good portion of the day taking my brace off and slowly moving my knee to start rehabbing it. It is feeling much better and based on how much pain I don’t feel while trying to turn at night I can tell it is getting there. I really only have sharp pain if I twist it one particular way. I will be wearing the brace for a while, but I think the easy hike is doable tomorrow.
I started a new book. It’s much smaller and I am calling it my “palette cleanser” after that really long novel. It’s called “Honey, let’s get a boat” and is the telling of a couple who got boat fever and needed to take a break from their lives in California. They bought a boat with no experience and did the Great Loop. It has been highly recommended and I look forward to hearing their story. The Great Loop is a way for boaters to chase the sun all year long. By starting, say, in our home waters of Green Bay, Lake Michigan we would go to Chicago and take down our mast. Take the Chicago River system to the Mississippi River and down to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterways bringing you the Gulf of Mexico and put the mast back up. Follow that all the way around Florida and up the Intercostal Waterways on the east coast. You can go all the way to the St. Lawerence or take the mast back down and come through the Erie Canal and back to the Great Lakes. Many detours can be had. Some folks get to Florida and spend extra time going to the Bahamas and such. It isn’t something I would do on Ciara but it sounds like an intriguing way to experience America and her waters. We have sailor friends who did it in a year. They put their sailboat on the hard and bought a boat just for the year. They rented out their house and sold the boat after the adventure was done. It was so affordable in the end that they actually MADE money.
Mid-day called for a short nap after a late night. When I awoke, I looked into Kona’s eyes and told her that I would finally play with her. She lit up as she watched me prepare her pup plank. I played ball off the boat for over an hour with her. Many power boats had come in while we napped and re-filled the anchorage for the weekend. There was this red golden who swam all the way from his boat to go swimming with Kona. I threw him his own ball and he returned to his boat. Later his owner had thrown another ball for him that he couldn’t see (blue and orange I think is hard for dogs to see in the water). Kona was able to fetch it for him, so in some way, we did a ball exchange.
Captain offered to take me for a dinghy ride to enjoy the area. I brought snacks. We didn’t end up eating them because we just talked to other boats. First, we stopped at this cute C-dory with just a single woman from Wisconsin aboard, and her dog named Girl. She was so happy for us to stop by. Girl is quite the yapper and most boaters don’t come by because she goes nuts. Girl jumped on our dinghy and loved our attention and Kona while we chatted for a while. Next, we took the ball Kona had retrieved to the powerboat it had come from. They invited us aboard for some drinks and snacks and we chatted with them for a few hours. Kona and Harley played ball, got treats and relaxed. Eventually Kona started to whine and I realized she swam for over an hour and had probably drunk a lot of water and needed to go pee so we invited the crew over later for happy hour after dinner and took her to shore. She jumped to shore and immediately had the longest pee ever. We quickly said hi to the other sailboat next to us before we finally made it back to Ciara to make dinner.
Cory had spent time after their nap felting. There was a shape taking form that I thought would be a rat but they assured me it wasn’t and I would have to wait and see.
Dinner was our amazing flank steak and mashed potatoes. I finished up dishes right at 7pm when our friends came over for a short but nice happy hour. Our boat is quite the opposite of theirs and we both enjoyed seeing each other’s boats and talking about how we manage storage, food prep and life at sea.
Just shy of 9pm I sent Cory and Captain (with Kona) to the dinghy to get a video of me playing trumpet. Tonight, I would play Taps and Last Post. My dear cousin, Alex, passed away five years ago today. He was active-duty Army and spent his entire life in service to our county. He was my age and gone unexpectedly and too soon. Taps was in honor of him and I was happy to share the video with the family to let them know I gave him the honor.
Captain and Cory took Kona to shore one last time and then Captain asked me if I wanted to take another dinghy ride. Promised a ride and not social time. I clambered aboard and we set off in the dusk to finish up the evening. The inner anchorage here has three sailboats and a dozen powerboats. Most of them rafted together to safe space and make life easier for them as they can just walk from boat to boat and hang out all day and night. The other anchorage was the opposite, all sailboats and just a few powerboats. Captain slowed the dinghy has we glided past the anchorage and said how much he loves it out here and spending this life with me. Soaking up the moment once again I couldn’t think of a better life than the one we have made together and the person sitting in the boat with me being my guiding light and Captain. The moon was setting behind the cliffs and the bugs were starting to have their prime so we headed back and shut down Ciara for the evening.
I rehabbed my knee a little more and Cory showed me their finished project. A possum! He is so cute. It was a lovely day and I looking forward to tomorrow where we hopefully will get to explore some new places.
