Deb's 2 cents Labor Day 2008

Labor Day 9/1/08

Ahoy All!

As you know, we’ve landed at Green Turtle Bay and will be here for a couple of weeks. It’s a great marina, lots of boating activity all around to watch. Bob tells me that the ship’s store is a very good one…lots of boatical things to buy. (I saw a cute tee-shirt!)

We’ve had a couple of cruising days and understandably, things are a little disheveled right now. After enjoying the rest of the Labor Day weekend, we’ll get right on that!

We had a couple of wakeful nights at anchor, on Friday and Saturday night. It was beautiful where we were both nights…very calm and quiet (the locusts and frogs were the noisiest things around!)…but still, I constantly wondered if the anchor was holding. I would set a landmark out the back window before we went to bed (a tree, or a break in the tree line or something that stands out) and all night long, I would wake up and look out that window to make sure my "mark" was still in the same position! I remember one anchorage a couple of years back, I looked out the window and SWORE we were moving! I went out to the helm area and stood for long minutes, staring out the window and watching the water move by (seriously!) I even woke BK up saying, "I think we're drifting." Turns out it was just the wind on the water making ripples in the moonlight. Sheesh! So that's usually how I spend my nights at anchor. On Saturday night at the Cuba Towhead (behind the island on the TN River) I was looking out that window regularly until 2:00 am and I'll have to admit...when BK went topside and kept watch...then I slept like a baby! I think I owe him a night on watch duty!

But yesterday we pulled into Green Turtle Bay Marina and tied HQ securely in a slip. We put fenders and lines all over the place! And after a quiet afternoon at the pool for me and a cool afternoon on the boat watching the race for BK, and following a couple of long days and sleepless nights, at 9:00 pm when we headed for bed, we both looked at each other and smiled...looking forward to a great night's sleep!

We were here on vacation in July on a rented houseboat with Jeff, Beccah and the kids. It'll be fun to check out the places we explored while with them. At that time, we found a great cove to anchor and stayed there all week. It was quiet enough to be able to play on the houseboat slide and swim all day long without the worry of other boats getting too close. We got there on a Monday and had it all to ourselves all week long. But early on Saturday, boats started trickling in, rafting off each other and cranking their stereos up! Seems we had stumbled upon this part of KY Lake's version of "Party Cove"! So today we're going to pack a cooler and take a dinghy ride over to that cove to check out the Labor Day partiers! It's supposed to be 95* and sunny and this being the unofficial last weekend of summer, the cove should be packed!

But first, a little TLC for HQ. BK's outside washing the last few days of cruising off the boat. Seems the anchor is a little muddy (hm-m-m...I must have missed a spot) and we're bowed into the slip so he's excited about the fact that he can get to the bow and really get it clean! (Simple pleasures!) I'm going to straighten up a bit (nothing too strenuous...it's a holiday after all) and then get the cooler ready! Another great day on a boat!

Enjoy your days off...I'll chime in again soon.

----- First Mate Deb -----

~I found out that the first mate runs the ship...everyone reports to the mate, except the captain. Doesn't that sound like a position of importance? (Now I just have to get someone else on board to boss around!)