Bruce and I have been trying to extricate ourselves from
the many duties and responsibilities we've assumed in the past two years or
more and this weekend, we've begun to see the fruits of our efforts. Somehow I found myself off work at 3pm on
Friday and we threw some things into the van and escaped to the boat!
I will say that since we've had Elan for sale, we've been
limited as to how much we are able to relax and spread out due to the fact that
we never know when someone might come along and want to take a look. Every time we come for the night or weekend,
we find that we've forgotten to bring some "vital" piece of stuff
needed for casual weekend boat activities.
We finally gave up and quit trying to cook on board so as not to have to
clean the galley to "boat show" standards. It also cuts down on the amount of stuff we
have to haul out here and gives us the opportunity to eat out, which is my real
ulterior motive.
We arrived here at about 4:30 and grabbed a beverage for
an evening stroll. We were checking out
friend's new slip over on the fixed docks and were hailed by those very
friends. We hadn't expected any company
this weekend but were pleasantly surprised when Bill and Jan showed up.
We made quick plans and ended up having dinner at the
Wild Horse Saloon. We agreed upon this place at Bill's urging
and were not disappointed. I was up for
trying something new...
The Saloon is not very old but when you enter, it looks
like one of those old places that have been around for ages. No frills, just peanuts on the floor and
darkness brightened by a multitude of neon signs. We found a tall table easily as only the bar
seats were taken at this time of the evening.
We ordered drinks and I found the novelty of husking a
peanut and cavalierly tossing the shell onto the floor quite liberating. We all settled on burgers and fries and felt
a little flutter when Larry Joe Taylor came in the door with a couple of
cronies and sat at the table right next to us.
I got the distinct impression that he wished to pretend to be incognito,
so we obliged. It's gotta be hard to be
him and have people hanging on all the time.
He's just a guy after all... I think he was even wearing that same white shirt
the last time I saw him... It was funny
though how when I got the waiter to take our picture, LJT was hiding in the
background.
We finished up and joined Bill and Jan back on Merlin for
a rum punch. The night was much cooler
now so we hung out down below. Typically
Bruce and I head for bed at this point in the evening, but one of my New Year's
Resolutions is to be more fun... that means no more going to bed at 8 pm. Bruce was the one who threw in the towel
first this time and we slunk off to the v-berth somewhere around 10 pm.
My favorite thing about sleeping on the boat are the
sounds you hear through the night. We
had a change in the weather and I knew it by the way the boat sounded. Sometime in the night, things changed. New sounds and more rocking. The Norther' had arrived. This means we really need not spring out of
the sack in the morning because it will be blowing hard and much cooler. I snuggled down and enjoyed the forced
inactivity.
We abandoned sleep at about 6 am but didn't leave the
v-berth until about 9:30. I mused about
whether I would ever be able to shake the compulsion to be doing something all
the time and just go with whiling away the time following the leads on the
Internet or reading a good book... I
gave it a good try this morning.
We finished our coffee with Bailey's and drove over the Beaches
for breakfast. We had the biscuits and
gravy, the best anywhere and tried the bread pudding with more coffee. We were greeted by the owner, Bob and had a
long conversation with him. He's quite
nice and is studying the art of BBQ which is evident if you ever get a chance
to try his pulled pork. He said he's
toying with the idea of doing whole hogs but hasn't launched it yet. I'm OK with it as long as I don't have to see
the thing. We talked to him about
working up a proposal for possibly catering a future BYC Cruise to Port A.
Back at the boat, the cool winds were blustery and
wild. I had a walk on the beach in mind
but a nap seemed a more likely pastime at this point. Hey, it's the weekend and I'm trying to relax
and go with it. I stretched out in the
v-berth under the warm sun from the hatch above my head and dozed away an hour
or so. 
Once again the compulsion to be doing something seized us
so we packed up our stuff and drove to the jetties for that beach walk. I made some sandwiches... heavy emphasis on
on the "sand"... which we ate in the van while watching people feed
flocks of gulls. Aren't tourists
cute? The winds were really blowing the
sand which was all over us already and we weren't even out of the van
yet... We gave up on our walk and headed
for home.
We had planned to stay on board for a second night but
had received an invitation to an impromptu 40th birthday celebration for our
friend Clay. No way could we miss it so
we showed up at the appointed time at B&J's Pizza and joined the fun. It's been a while since we've seen Clay and
his family but he is one of those friends that you can just pick up where you
left off and we always enjoy his family.
We ended our Saturday with lots of laughs and a scrumptious cupcake. I can't believe Clay is 40...
