Chance Encounters

One of the more surprising elements of cruising is how many times you run into people you know - even in the strangest places.  The winds were so high when we woke up again that I somewhat expected not to leave the boat at all.  I put myself to work on a Christmas project (it's a secret!) and was happily making progress when Rob announced he was ready to go ashore.  In that there WAS a farmers market I had set my eyes on, I donned my "foulies" and we made our way in the wind and waves.

The farmers market was a good walk away and the exercise felt good.  It was a simple and quiet market, probably due to the poor weather, but still diverse and quite good.  Raw milk, grass fed meats, several specialty bakeries and numerous produce vendors made for a selection of nice things to take back home.

We walked a different direction and found some new areas of the town and even a shortcut of two.  While walking, we received a call from a Charleston harbor friend, Banff Luther, who happened to be passing through St. Augustine on his newly purchased liveaboard catamaran he just brought back from the Virgin Islands.  He was on his way up the ICW and wanted to say hi although didn't expect to stop.

On our walk back to the marina, the strangest thing happened.  The sun peeked through the clouds and gave us our first glimpse of sunlight in 5 days!  And then it found an actual opening in the clouds and showered us with even a little warmth.  And then the clouds starting moving off to "one side" for a full on show of a sunny day . . . when the wind died down to, well, NOTHING!   You have no idea how welcome every step of this process was!  Like a gulp of air after holding your breath underwater!!!  I swear the angels sang!

We proceeded back to the marina, and went to the dockmasters office to acquire some info incoming sailing friends had requested when the radio piped up as Banff hailed the marina to do a stop by for some engine oil.  We saw him just off the marina and went out to catch his lines.  He had not intended to stop at all although he needed to wait out the bridge opening for 15 minutes so we were able to catch a quick tour of  "OM" and sent him back on his way up the ICW toward Charleston.

With the sun out, we quickly grabbed all of the sea water soaked cushions still waiting attention after our sail down and brought them ashore for a thorough fresh water soaking.  One at a time we lugged the full sized cushions in our dinghy - salty on the way in and dripping wet on the way back.  But, aaahhh, a step in the right direction!

On our last "soaking" run we received a phone call from Paula Byers and family.  She, her daughter, grandson and her brother Eddie,(my favorite Special Olympics athlete buddy in Charleston) were at the fort here and thought they saw our boat on the water, thinking they'd give us a call.  Now that was certainly unexpected!  We lugged the final cushion to the boat and met up with our chance guests for a beer (okay, I think the cider is addictive!) and an app before they headed to a family reunion further on down the road.

Returning to the boat, we were disappointed to watch the clouds filling in and the wind pick back up to a good scream.  Somehow the whole scene was easier to take after a day filled with surprise sunshine and friends.