Sunday, January 18, 2009

Haw, hawww, haughwwwww... Haw, hawww, haughwwwww... there's a bird that's been around the marina every morning since we've been here with a laugh like a villain out of an old "B" movie. Haw, awww, aughwwwww... Haw, hawww, haughwwwww... He makes me smile and chuckle every morning and I've been meaning to mention him every day - only by the time I'm writing my journal at night - I never remember to mention him. I'm not sure what type of bird he is - a black bird? Laughing gull? Only that each morning (except for 2) I've heard his sardonic laugh and I have to mimic his laugh in return, which in turn, makes me genuinely laugh and makes Wayne look at me, then grin. Good morning world! The sun is out and the boat is drenched in morning dew. I went up top this morning to see if I could put a face to my laughing friend but couldn't pin point where he'd been. The dodger windows are thick with water droplets (inside and outside) so I can't tell if the bird is perched in the trees beyond the mooring or sitting on someone else's boat. I did note that it's actually warmer in the cockpit than below deck though so I'm taking my morning coffee up top to enjoy the early morning sun (and to see if my friend will laugh with me again - only it's usually only once in the morning).

After coffee and English muffins & fruit, we took the dingy over to the marina dock for showers and to see if the buses run on Sundays so we could run into town (they don't). We have way more sanitary hose than we needed and when we run into town for the bolts, etc... West Marine said they'd take back the hose we didn't use (yay!). We did have two packages waiting for us in the Marina office - the heat dispersing unit and the chip for the chart plotter (Central America and Bahamas).

The rest of the day we spent reading and relaxing in the cockpit. It was neat looking at the charts on the chart plotter - of course I had to find St. John's and Cinnamon Bay, and of course my mind wandered to hmmmm - what if we set a course for there... But, my favorite morning coffee stump (of driftwood on the beach) will have to wait for another time. It's not in the cards for this leg of our journey.

Made steak, twice baked potatoes (this time not "well done") and a salad that was a rendition of tomato, avocado, onion, & left over broccoli shreds with a balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing for dinner and thought we could polish off the left over French bread from yesterday's dinner sandwiches but we were to stuffed so I'll use the bread tomorrow.

Today would have been a perfect day for taking pictures around the marina but it was just too delicious to sit topside and read in the sun.

Somebody had told me that they thought we went cruising to escape life. We really didn't. The comment reminded me of something I'd heard before, but don't remember who said it: "...we went cruising not to escape life, but to keep life from escaping us". It was so nice to just kick back, relax, and enjoy the day. I thoroughly enjoyed the day.