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| Visibility of tonight's moon shot... |
As always, hitching rides introduces you to some fascinating people. My first ride of the day, out of Owen Sound, was with three women - that was a new one. My last ride, a mortician, dropped me off at the boat even though it was out of his way. I told him I enjoyed meeting him and I did, but I was glad it wasn't professionally...even if I was feeling dead tired.
Arriving here, I ran into my buddy, Doc, who invited me over for dinner - a true blessing, because I was exhausted, and Cindy is a great cook... I should add here, I met Doc because his wife picked me up hitchhiking out of Richmond Airport...but that's another story.
After fourteen hours of sleep, I awoke full of determination to tidy and clean the boat to within an inch of its gelcoat...after checking email, facebook, etc. and etc.
First of course, I had to walk the pup, so off to the town marina we went. There, Aduana made friends with Willow, a gorgeous Golden Retriever whose person is Tom the dockmaster, and away they went.
It was great fun watching them romp in and out of the water, chasing one another for over an hour. Where they get the energy, I'll never know, because they didn't slow down for a moment. Later, poor Aduana was suffering from diarrhea due to the salt water she swallowed while swimming so much, but she's fine now, and napping beside me.
Returning to the boat entailed a quick check of emails again, with several requiring responses, a couple of Facebook posts, some phone calls....then it was time to join Doc, Cindy, Rob and Becky off Sea Quell, on Peter's boat, a Sabre 40.
Well, the evening was perfect - great winds, warm, incredible sunset, lots of laughter...and best of all, no destination. Just sail out for an hour or so, then turn around and sail back. Being a cruiser, I so rarely sail with no destination....but I'm planning on doing more of it, this was wonderful. Best of all, with so many competent sailors on board, I hardly touched a line or sheet - ahhh, bliss, I was a passenger. That doesn't happen often.
Then, to cap off the evening, there was a moon launch from the NASA site on Chesapeake Bay, Wallops Island (see here). The image above shows the area in which the launch was visible, and it was really neat to see - not as exciting as the Shuttle launch I once viewed, but well worth watching.
Saturday, I'll get to the boat cleaning...or maybe not. As a friend of mine once said, and it's advice worth heeding - Dust Keeps. In other words, if you have a choice between a menial chore and something far more interesting, such as time spent with good friends, remember that the dust will be there for you when you return. Good friends may not always be there if you ignore them for other things.
Enjoy your weekend everyone.
