It started sprinkling in the early hours of morning when it’s quite dark and the birds are still sleeping. I had to get up to close the hatches and ports then couldn’t get back to sleep. I sat up for a little while watching the moon play peek-a-boo with me between the clouds. It was like the clouds couldn’t decide whether to rain or not. The winds started whipping up and it looks like the cold front is moving in faster than predicted. This made me think of Jesse and Tanner. I’d talked to my grandson Jesse yesterday and learned they were driving down with their dad to Florida. I hope that they’re not driving straight though. With the artic front pushing down, it could be treacherous. The good news is, the wind generator is spinning and charging our batteries. The bad news is – more sub-freezing weather is going to be moving into south Florida! Hope the boys are packing snuggies!

With the winds roaring, it wasn’t a good day to leave the boat. The wind against the strong tidal current here really had the waves kicked up into some very rough chop. This was reinforced while I putzed around straightening things up. I heard a low “help!’ and didn’t think anything of it until I didn’t hear anything more. Sometimes couples yell at each other for help on something or another abord their boats and the sound carries. After listening further, and not hearing anything else, I went topside to look around. As the boat next to us swung around, I could see what I thought was a man trying to climb onto his transom ladder. He wasn’t having much luck, and I thought, what the heck is he doing in the water, especially with these conditions. Then I noticed his dingy was turned over and he couldn’t climb aboard his boat. I went for the key to the dinghy and was trying to figure out how to get the dingy next to me to get in when the guy next to us got in his and got it going. His wife and I made eye contact like oh no…. but her husband made it over to the guy in the water. I’m not sure how, maybe adrenaline helped him, but he was able to haul the guy aboard his dingy, and grab the other dinghy as they started drifting out into the channel. He was able to get his dinghy started and get the other guy back to his boat safely. With the wind and the waves kicked up so much, the guy was lucky that anybody heard him. I was greatful that the other guy was able to get to him. After watching the two, I’m not sure I would have been able to haul the guy aboard our dinghy by myself. Time to take a look at our setup I think!

After settling down and glad that Wayne was asleep in the V-berth, I continued sorting through things and I found some DVDs. I’d never heard of Watchmen but must have picked it up at the swap when I’d gotten 4-5 DVDs. It was a good afternoon to get lost in one so after searching for and finding my headphones enjoyed an early evening movie. It’s nice to have the wind generator spinning – I like having power on the boat for the computer!

Dinner tonight was going to be turkey and salad, but it really started getting cold so I heated up the left over stuffing and turkey and had that with corn and pumpkin, pecan, strussel pie (no kidding – that was the pie & it was mmmmm yummy).