How to Show Friends a Good Time . . .

I find myself yearning for a good night’s sleep.  After the drama of two nights before and the one night reprieve, Friday evening brought another big “blow” to town.  After an uneventful day of wandering and errands, we got ready for our liveaboard sailing friends from Charleston, David and Gretchen, to arrive.  

 
Arrive they did mid-afternoon just as the wind started to creep up.  They were gracious enough to have loaded their car with provisions for us from Costco and Trader Joe’s and we had our hands full trying to maneuver parking, unloading and transporting everything from their car to the dinghy and then to the boat.  Rob made the first trip solo as the wind started to build further. 

We all made it out to the boat without too much drama besides a few good splashes then headed right back out to hit Mallory Square for some entertainment at sunset.  We had a really great time with both Gretchen and Rob participating in different "shows" and then scooted back to Moonshadow to make an evening dinner aboard.  And the wind continued to build. 

Before long we were starting to watch boats shift once again as we ourselves closely watched the chart plotter to guarantee that our own hold was good.  We were holding just great when another boat let loose and worked their way entirely around us wrapping their anchor rope around our anchor chain while the wind and waves were whipping around.  You can imagine this is NOT what you want to have happen!  With some expert seamanship, the four of us on board worked together to release ourselves from our neighbor’s “lasso”.  Unfortunately, the other boat was not stable and we could not safely set the anchor again.

This is when we decided the only way to safely escape the worsening conditions was to round Fleming Island (once AGAIN) and try to get a mooring or anchor on the other side.   This meant navigating around the island in the dark and high winds – something I’ve never done willingly – especially after our last mooring run around the island. 

Arriving safely, it was Rob’s turn for heroics.  He got on the dinghy and went ahead to find us a safe mooring, planning on preparing the ball for us to approach and grab “on the go”.  This was no easy nor terribly safe feat but, between the four of us, we did a pretty impressive job of working the dinghy, lines and 44’ 36,000 pound vessel onto a floating plastic orb in the wave swept water and high winds some time after midnight.  We seriously considered “celebrating” our held position with shots of something lethal but opted for tea and made it to bed somewhere after 2am. 

And so ended the first of three much less exciting although more relaxing days together.  Welcome to visiting Moonshadow, David and Gretchen!   So . . . who's next?!