Saturday, October 10, 2009

Wednesday, September 30. 2009








It was chilly again this morning – in the mid 50’s – but it didn’t take too long for things to warm up. We spent the morning tuning the rigging, putting the sails up, and cleaning inside and out. About 2:30, Don asked if we were interested in walking downtown with them to get some ice cream. That sounded like the best offer we’d heard all day! We each chose our treat – Lucy even had a small bowl of soft serve. At 4:30 pm we left the dock to find our anchorage for the night and tucked into a nice little bay near a campground next to Green Turtle Bay Marina.

Don still needed to get to the top of his mast and put the wind instrument up. Even though it is generally recommended that you remove the wind gauge when you bring the mast down to avoid damaging it in transit or during the mast stepping process, we have never taken ours down. Neither one of us was too keen on climbing the mast to put it back up! Don, however, had followed the recommendation and asked Gale to hoist him up the mast to do the job. Don rigged up his bosun’s chair, attached it to the main halyard to winch him up and the spinnaker halyard as a safety line. Gale and Ally manned the lines and took Don slowly up the mast. The job was completed without any problems just as the sun was setting.

Back on Blue Heron, we enjoyed a little “anniversary” celebration. We were married two years and three months ago today! Gale had picked up a few items for the boat recently without Maureen’s knowledge and she was surprised with two wall hangings: one was a colorful painting of a sailboat on a small piece of slate that said “Set Sail” and fit nicely between the two windows on the bulkhead between the salon and the master stateroom; the other was a long piece that said “BEACH – Just Another Day in Paradise” and will hang in the guest cabin. Gale also presented Maureen with a pair of earrings he had picked up at the Arch gift shop in St. Louis that were in the shape of the Gateway Arch.

We enjoyed a quiet evening and the very pleasant smell of campfires all night long.

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