We’ve been quite busy enjoying our time at the fancy Orange Beach marina. Our pause here has given Scott the opportunity to settle back into a work routine. After two months “off” of work, he actually seemed a little excited about doing something that didn’t involve crawling through a bilge. Riley’s actually been working quite hard while we’re here. He’s pushing through to wrap up school in the next few weeks. I think he’s ready for his summer break! Seems that spelling and math aren’t nearly as fun as fishing and swimming, and he’d like to devote all day, every day to the pursuit of his hobbies for a while. Aside from teaching, I’ve been doing a bit of reading and, apparently, soaking up every UV ray within a five county radius. Seriously. My tan is out of control. Short of wearing a haz-mat suit on deck, I think I’m destined to be the color of a macadamia nut by the end of this adventure. Oh well, guess that’s a side effect of getting to live in your swimsuit.

We did manage to take some time out of our busy schedules to do a little sailing recently. We took a few days and headed over to Ono Island, Alabama and Perdido Key, Florida. The Ono Island anchorage has been my favorite so far. The spot Scott chose was PERFECT for me and my post- running aground nerves. I have to give him props on this one. We were able to set the hook far off of the ICW, in 12 feet of water, and I actually slept like a baby for the first time on the hook! After a perfectly uneventful night, we woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunrise and the best dolphin show yet. The stork seems to have visited the dolphin population around here, and there are calves EVERYWHERE! It’s absolutely adorable to watch them splash and jump around while the older dolphins show them the ropes and keep them safe.

We left Ono Island before I was ready and headed over to Perdido Key, mostly because Scott was itching to get to Florida (one of those just-because-we-can moments, I guess). The anchorage there was okay. We had trouble setting the anchor at first, and Scott got his first taste of sabbatical/work conflict, since he had to cancel a conference call due to our setting issues. I think the call went something like this, “I’ll have to bow out of this afternoon’s call, since I can’t get my anchor to set, and I’m about to drift into the path of an oncoming barge. Can I call you guys later?” That was probably a first for everyone involved, but they seemed to have worked it out. I wasn’t crazy about the location of this anchorage; we weren’t very far off of the ICW, and there was a lot of commercial traffic on this section. However, we were able to play on the beach on both the Gulf side and the bay side from this one anchorage, so despite its faults, I’d stay at this spot again.

For those of you keeping up with the storms we’ve had down here lately, the second night of our Perdido Key anchorage was the night the first batch of tornadoes tore through the South. We didn’t get a drop of rain where we were, but we did get a whole lot of lightening and wind, wind, wind. It was so LOUD that neither one of us got any sleep that night. Since the Perdido Key anchorage made me a little nervous, Scott made it up to me by taking me back to Ono Island before we ran out of water and had to head back in to civilization. None of us were ready to come back, so I can’t wait until Scott can turn on our new watermaker! It will be interesting to see how much extra time on the hook it buys us.

Despite the fun we’ve been having, I began struggling with a bit of claustrophobia this month, so when we weren’t napping, or swimming, or playing on the beach, or having a beer at two on a Tuesday afternoon and laughing because everyone we know is at work, we’ve been combing through the boat for every single item that can be removed. After two months of living aboard, we’ve gradually reevaluated our definition of “essential,” and we’ve been able to take a good bit off of the boat. When you’re living in a couple dozen square feet, every bobby pin counts,! After going through the boat a few times, I was able to take a pretty large load out of here. It feels sooooo much better in here with our new pared down approach. I just hope I’m not kicking myself for taking too much off in the near future.