Ice, charging, devil-may-care attitude about lights being left on.. that’s us!
(Just kidding- still quite stingy with precious resources!)
The great External Regulator Bypass of 2022 was a massive success, and we’re back in charging business. Andy’s stress level has decelerated for the moment, and I don’t have to live out my dad’s old story of sailing in the Gulf of Mexico with no refrigeration a million years ago: “Two days out (approximately a day and a half after the ice was gone), you couldn’t even remember WHAT a cold rum and Coke tasted like, and you didn’t miss it!”. To that oft- mentioned memory I’ve often thought: likely story. Now, thankfully, I won’t have to confirm or deny the experience.
We cheered for our mechanical engineer Andy, and then anticlimactically had to sit and wait for the tide to flood enough to be able to leave the harbor. Plus we wanted to wait for it to gust higher and start raining, so we could really nail our exit in extreme comfort. (Kidding again!)
Though quite damp and gray, we ended up having an easy passage across ‘the whale’, and while I then tucked into what turned out to be an almost five hour board meeting, we landed on the dock in front of a friends’ winter home on Man O’War to a warm reception. We haven’t been back to the island since Dorian, and while the island itself has had a very slow recovery, our friends and their cottage appeared unchanged, save for the dock, which.. could be a water slide. Secure enough to tie up, however, so here we sit.
The sun came out and the family went up the hill to join in on a larger gathering of cruisers and ex cruisers, including a family who we met four years ago on a remote beach about 20nm south of here. Big world, small circles!
After a quick rain shower this morning, the sun is up with gusto, and we’ll make our way up and out to check out the post-Dorian town scene, and likely a beach here and there. (Or, as the mother mentioned, we can just let the kids roam as feral island children for the day and call it good.)
