Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
August 7, 2006
Didn’t intend on the last update to have a cliff-hanger ending! So you know, we did survive our 7-day island tour and didn’t get lost or kidnapped! We returned from that fantastic excursion to a busy two weeks ending June because we decided to make a trip home to Boise in July to address our homesickness. It was wonderful to see our family and we kept thinking that we would have time to post an update once we were “home”
but we seemed to maintain sprint mode for four weeks during our stay. And we still didn’t manage to see all our friends that we intended to see! For those of you that are just now learning that we were in Boise and didn’t call or see you – we are woefully sorry. If we could’ve managed our time differently to fit everything in we certainly would have. So please forgive us if we didn’t connect with you and for those of you that we were able to see – thanks for being flexible with your time.
Anxiety twisted our stomachs the last few days of our Boise visit as we watched Tropical Storm Chris turn into a hurricane with a projected path along the north coast of the Dominican Republic. In the previous weeks we had received many welcome updates from our cruising friends in Bahia Luperon that Lucky Peek was doing fine on her anchor, sitting right where we left her – just looking a bit lonely. Then with the approaching storm we received word that many boats in the harbor had moved to the harbor’s edges to tie to the soft yet strong mangroves. Large fishing vessels from Puerto Plata were even moving into the protection of our mangrove-lined harbor. Ann and Steve on Receta graciously offered to move Lucky Peek for us but we made the decision to just leave her put. Before leaving her at the end of June we had set our storm anchor (Fortress FX37) in tandem on 25 feet of 3/8” chain with our 45 pound CQR acting as the sentinel on 140 feet of chain. We removed the headsail, storing it below along with the cockpit cushions. The mainsail stayed on in its cover with a tight wrapping of line securing it. We were relatively confident with the ground tackle in place and our other preparations, but suddenly with a real threat of a storm in our absence it all seemed inadequate. Fortunately, for everyone, Chris tuckered out before gaining more strength and visiting any shorelines.
We leave tomorrow morning to return to Luperon and are excited to be reunited with our home on the water along with our cruising neighbors. We’ve just spent the last six hours trying to fit the following into our new hard-sided thrift store luggage: a KISS wind generator, an assortment of 18 billion stainless steel screws/nuts/bolts, a handheld VHF radio (to replace the one that is now at the bottom of Bahia Luperon after Rod assisted with wrangling a boat dragging on its anchor), a replacement VHF radio for the one that went kaput in the Bahamas that we had to replace there for a billion dollars (the one that went kaput was under West Marine warranty so now we have a spare), one satellite phone, two Hella fans to help keep us not-so-hot at night, an anchor holder to replace the one we broke during a not-so-graceful exit from a fuel dock in the Bahamas, cotter pins and more cotter pins, a replacement shower hose for the one that sprung a major leak the morning we were leaving Luperon, and so many other boat things that at this moment of exhaustion I can’t think of them. It is 12:53am and we are leaving for the airport in six hours. Some things never change.
Night-night.
