Six Months Out
13 April 2011 | Emerald Bay, Great Exuma
Jill
Today is the six-month anniversary of our leaving our home port of Wilson. When we left, we never thought we’d still be as close to home as the Bahamas. In fact, when we left, we weren’t sure we’d be coming to the Bahamas at all. But then we met Jon and Arline and tried to catch up to them in the Bahamas and even though we missed them that got us here. Once here there seemed no point to hurry through. We were warm, the water was clear, the sailing was good. Now we’ve decided to head back to the US for a while. I’m not disappointed, I’m just not at all certain of what the next step will be, but I know we’ll be aboard Earendil somewhere.
I remember how nervous I was when we left Wilson at the prospect of just the two of us handling the boat. We had some scrapes (literally) docking, but have now come in to and left many different types of docks with no one around to help, and we’ve done fine. I remember how reluctant I was to try to anchor. Now we have an anchor we trust we find it’s a lot easier to anchor than to dock (until we have to launch that dinghy, it’s a lot easier to walk off a dock). I still worry that we don’t have enough battery power to keep our systems happy, but today Bud reminded me that we haven’t been plugged in to shore power since the 14th of February and everything is still running. I remember how concerned I was that we had spent so little time actually sailing. I still don’t feel like an experienced sailor, but even if we don’t do everything right, sailing this boat is a pleasure, and that’s why we’re here.
We ended up not doing anything special to celebrate, but the weather did. It rained, and after a slow and scattered start it actually rained fairly hard for nearly an hour. It was such an occasion that I took a picture of the rain on the water and dripping off the tarp that we put up for extra shade from the sun. When it rains here it really is pennies from heaven. The wash the boat got will save us several gallons of water at forty cents a gallon. A nice anniversary present, after all.