Planes, trains and helicopters.

We see blue skies this morning after a wild and wooly night in the anchorage. Some sort of emergency onshore yesterday evening brought what sounded like dozens of emergency vehicles to a scene quite close to the shore. Either a news or police helicopter buzzed overhead, deflecting the many private jets coming into the nearby airport far and wide; the whole scene was quite exciting. As soon as the hubbub died down the trains began for the night. Lots of horn blasts as they make their way through downtown, and car after car (after car) rumbled over the bridge and out of then blessedly out of earshot.

Cue sound sleeping until the storm blew in with force. Rain lashed the boat sideways, lightening struck, thunder boomed, and our little dinghy happily slapped the waves under her while bouncing on the little ‘sea’  that had kicked up. The girls slept through all of it, and though my favorite sleeping weather is heavy rain when I’m cozy and warm under cover, I was wide awake watching the sky light up with the crazy lightening.

Now that we’ve chamoised the boat and I’ve utilized my ‘reading nook’ in the cockpit for my first cup of coffee, we’re into our day’s tasks. The girls are doing schoolwork (no February break for them!), and Andy is biking to return the new (used) outboard engine bracket, to either have it replaced (which would mean ordering a new one), or to have them fix the faulty bracket we were sold. (The threads are stripped on the piece that needs to be tightened onto the engine itself- helpful!)

Yesterday Andy took advantage of the marina’s free bikes to bike 20+ miles around town to pick up the engine bracket and to find ‘the starter guy’ to pay for the new starter (the ‘shop’ doesn’t take credit cards, so cash had to be delivered pre-order- sounds legit, right?). (We were at the playground (again) while he was biking hither and yon, and bade our friends farewell after another 3 1/2 hour session on the merry-go-round.)

Our plan today once we have all of our parts gathered- mechanical, grocery and otherwise, is to get our holding tank pumped out (delish), fill our water tanks, and either head out this afternoon, or wait for an early morning exit. The non-plan plan is working out for most, apparently; no one seems too antsy at any given point except for me. I am very much ready to be floating on clear waters.