Much Activity For Sitting Still

George Town   

By the time the alarm went off this morning, we had swung around and were pointing into a stiff and chilly north wind. The anchorage was choppy with two-foot waves and whitecaps. We decided it was not worth a long and wet dinghy ride into town just to dispose of one bag of garbage. For the larger boats, however, the conditions were prime for moving. It was an active morning as we watched dozens of boats flee the harbor en route to a new destination. Following my morning yoga, some chores, a shower, and lunch, I went to the flybridge and rescued our tattered Bahamian courtesy flag. I reinforced the leading edge with packing tape trying to coax a few more weeks of service out of it. I brought my book and beach chair to the upper deck to shield my exposure to the wind. I enjoyed a few hours of reading in the sunshine before the afternoon parade of boats into the harbor began. One of the first boats that caught our eye was the bright red hull of Harvest Moon, a marina neighbor back home. Neal has solo-sailed this boat to George Town for the winter. What a pleasant surprise to see him. Twenty minutes later, I got the first sighting of Glenda, Greg, Jaxon, and Cooper aboard Paradigm Shift. Their boat slowly approached our position and they passed close enough to yell long-awaited "Hellos" to each other. An added bonus was hearing Cooper's big-boy bark coming from their bow. Of course, I had to acknowledge his enthusiastic greeting with a joyful call back to him. 

We had a few visitors in the afternoon. Fellow Selene owner Steve (Kallisto) came by on a jet ski. As the sun began to set, Neal came over for welcome-to-the-harbor appys and catching up. He and Barry can really get going when talking about boat "stuff." During their visit, Neal may have come up with the idea and assistance necessary to solve our anchor light issue. Fingers crossed on that one. I watched the sun set into a large cloud bank with rays reaching high in the sky. The light show continued as it sank below the clouds and eventually below the horizon. Now the countdown begins to tomorrow morning when we get to meet up with Paradigm Shift. It has been a long time since we have been within a quarter mile of each other -- Thanksgiving to be exact. I have finally allowed myself to get excited about our annual island reunion that is never really planned, but always seems to work out. I cannot wait.