"sailing family"

January 26, 2011
Wednesday

Hi All,

Yesterday morning we set out from Virgin Gorda to Anagada. We sailed most all the way with the wind blowing through our hair. While sailing, Tom caught a Spanish Mackeral (sp?) with his magic lure and sautéed him last night in olive oil! It was very good and the first time Savannah had fish where we had to be on lookout for tiny bones. Savannah even liked the fish!

We arrived in Anagada yesterday afternoon and are anchored just a hundred yards or so from the beach in about 7 foot of water. Anagada is 11 miles long, about half mile wide at the widest point and just 28 feet above sea level. There are at least 30 boats in sight doing the same.

After Tom cleaned his fish (I couldn't watch) we headed to the beach with the dogs to build a sandcastles and explore. Savannah climbed out of the dinghy and found a big, beautiful conch shell that had not long before washed up on the beach. We used the shell as a decoration on the finished sandcastle along with other pieces of coral and pieces of sea fan, Lexie rolled in the sand looking like a sand flea and slugger layed beside us moving only when a wave would start to cover him. Three times he had to get up from his nap to move!

As we were finishing the sandcastle a quick rain cloud headed toward us. Tom said, "Hey we gotta go! We didn't close the port holes on the boat!" By then we could see it was already raining where our boat was. We jumped on the dinghy and headed back, but not before the rain poured and wind howled! By the time we got back to Island Spirit we all looked like drowned rats. Things in the boat weren't too awfully wet. We spent the next half hour hanging out sheets to dry.

As Tom was cooking his fish in the skillet, a couple in a small john boat puttered to the side of our boat. Savannah, Slugger and I went over to see what they wanted. They were selling homemade bread, cinnamon rolls, muffins, etc. Yummy, it looked good & Slugger even thought so too! He thought so, so much he lost his footing, fell off the side of our boat into their boat on top of the lady! Then he bounced from her into the water and went partially under the hull of our boat! I was yelling, "Oh my gosh, are you alright? Are you alright? (to the lady)" Her husband went right for Slugger trying to bring him back in their boat as by now Slugger was trying to clutch their boat with his paws. Tom came out and he and the man hoisted Slugger around the back of our boat and out of the water onto the lowest step!

So we bought a lot of baked goods yesterday! I felt so bad for the lady. She said she was o.k. and I could see no cuts or scratches on her; but hey, a 100 lb. mutt just fell 5 feet into her lap! I know she must have be sore today. Her husband never asked if she were alright. He was most concerned about Slugger and the goodies they were selling. My guess is, we won't be getting anymore homemade goodies from them anymore! L
The only thing that hurt on Slugger was his pride. After all the commotion he lay on the side of the boat and