I just got a call from the Treasure Cay airport saying that our batteries and new refer will be on the 3:30p ferry today, and we’re all beside ourselves with excitement. (About batteries. Our kids’ standards for joy are getting pretty grim.)
Just AS exciting is the completion of all work on the hull, as of an hour ago. Andy did an amazing job, and it looks better than ever, truly! Now to clean up the mess below and around the boat.. Our yard space is littered with tarps, sun shades, a homemade-cinder block-and-old-door table covered in spent supplies and little projects, bilge pumps, buckets, kayaks, shoes, hanging suits and towels… I’m glad we’re in the corner of the yard, or I’d be appalled at anyone having to walk by Chickadee’s grotto of junk.
After school yesterday we blew up the paddle board and threw the kayaks in for a tour of Black Sound. There are a few places that we can’t measure the damage (and/or subsequent repair efforts) from the road, so I was interested to see them from the water. A favorite marina, just a few docks in from the yard, is a mess, and void of any work happening. It looks completely untouched since the storm, and I wonder what its fate holds.
There are SO many boats along the banks of the mangroves. Some sunken, some partially sunken, some overturned, some shards… all quite difficult recoveries if, for the sake of cleanup, that’s what’ll happen. It’s hard to guess at this point, since there are so many other priorities for the land-based damage. I feel like a novel based on the secrets that the mangroves will envelope will be on our shelves shortly- SOMEone will be inspired to write that!
For the mangroves themselves, I was happy to see a bit of green within the intricate networks of dead-looking branches. They’re coming back! And thank goodness for that, since they’re such a valuable ecosystem here. I didn’t spot any nudibranchs (my favorite mangrove denizens), and apart from a bunch of upside-down jellyfish, we didn’t scout too much in the way of sea life. The grasses were still and quiet, with a piece of roofing or siding folded into the bottom here and there. The new Abaconian decor.
Once we greet our batteries this afternoon we’re off to a cruiser potluck at a local bar and restaurant. I’ve never met a more planning group of people than cruisers- there is always something going on. And it often involves beverages and food, which isn’t the worst thing to join forces for, I must admit.
Tomorrow we launch! It felt so good to float on the paddle board yesterday, I feel like a kid on Christmas Even with anticipation of how great it’ll be to be in the water. Until the splash!
