June 16, 2014
Sometimes you can just be quietly relaxing in your cockpit when the day takes a crazy, unexpected turn. That’s exactly what happened when we were anchored down in Robinson’s cove. We were holding down the cushions in the cockpit when Lewis and Alyssa, from s/v Eleutheria, dinghied up. We invited them aboard, and the drinks and the stories started flowing. Pretty soon, after they heard the ruckus, Lady Carolina joined in the fun and at some point, the conversation steered towards Bloody Marys and Bloody Ceasars and the merits of each. We already knew Steve made a pretty mean Caesar, but then we learned that Alyssa makes “The World’s best Bloody Mary.” The next thing I knew we had ditched the kids (they’re old enough to fend for themselves for dinner, right?) and we were zipping up the bay over to Eleutheria. And then the next thing I knew after that we were eating hot dogs on baguettes and drinking damn good Bloody Marys. What a great evening, and it was just a series of impromptu decisions, one right after another. The way back in the dark in the Lady Carolina dinghy was priceless. Dark meant we couldn’t see the coral heads, and if you recall we had both encountered coral with our dinghy props in the recent past. So, Steve was driving, and he had his hand-held GPS unit with the inbound track recorded. He was following the track like a video game with his eyes glued to the screen, barely looking around. Simultaneously, Tim is looking around and directing Steve which way to go based on his memory of where the coral is. Of course, Steve is just ignoring Tim, and Carolina and I are just trying to ignore the whole thing hoping we get back soon. Which we did. Without an encounter with the coral.
Dinghy 1, Coral 1.
Gresham Family Exodus 