Hilton Head

Yep, we’re still here! Now that we have rented a tandem bike, we can all pedal everywhere around the island. That includes trick or treating, grocery store, West Marine, beach, and post office.
Last night after trick or treating, Rachel and I discussed Werewolves while pedaling home through the dark. Just as we entered some thick woods on a bike path, I let out a blood-curdling scream which scared Rachel and Kathy to death.

Mom and Dad stayed in a condo with us for three days. It was a good break from living on the boat, complete with hot tub and pools. We walked on the beach, drove around the island, shopped, carved a pirate pumpkin, had some great meals, and Dad and I worked on the boat, of course.

Rachel has written another installment, which we’ll get to. She refers to our anchor day from hell, which started with a fouled anchor. We could move it side to side, but not up. It felt like it was grinding on an underwater cable, back and forth. Dumping it on a bouy was the last resort before going to the marina. When we got back, I hauled the rode onto the boat and cleated the anchor off on a stern cleat and then proceded to drag it all over the river before it finally broke free of whatever had a hold on it. By then, the tide had changed, with a strong outgoing tide against a strong wind from the opposite direction. Not the best conditions to control the boat while putting down two anchors and making sure the lines didn’t go into the prop. Well, I got things hopelessly tangled, and it took forever, but we came out victorious in the war of man versus inanimate objects. More lessons learned.

A cold front is due tomorrow, and once the weather settles down again, we’ll head south.

*Rachel’s Corner*
Tips+ Info.

The Sky:

Blue are the Heavenly boundaries of Earth
Wrapped gently and gracefully in swirling white powder
Upon these Heavens lies the Sun
Joyfully smiling
And waving his arms of light and warmth
Like a baby being softly cooed at
By his mother
And happily tickled by his father
This ceiling of great blues and whites
Above our heads
Was not made by man,
But by nature.
Not only nature,
But also by hope, and faith, and love.
So let the Sun rest upon his bed
And let his bed of blues and whites stay whole
Let the Heavens hold the Sun
So the Earth can stay warm and bright,
Not dark and cold.


The inspiration of this poem came to me through the sky (as you can probably tell). Today, November 1, 2006 the sky was magnificent. With cumulous clouds all over the sky. We are still anchored in the same spot, in Hilton Head, SC. I really enjoy this town. Today I just did some home schooling, while Daddy cleaned the boat (of course). Things are going well.
However, last Saturday was just the opposite. It was the worst anchor day ever! Our plan was to go to the marina, just to get some gas and a few other things. So, we started up the motor to Stardust, thinking we would just pull up both of the anchors we had out, be at the marina for about an hour, come back, and just happily anchor. Well, he he ha ha, the joke was on us. The disaster started as we merely pulled up both anchors. Daddy thinks that our first anchor, the delta, got hung up on something on the bottom; and as a result, it would not come up. It would move, of course, but not budge upward one bit.
After one hour of pulling, tugging, and yelling, we tied one of our fenders around it, and left it in our spot; we would deal with it when we came back. The second anchor came up easily. Stardust motored over to the marina just fine, and we got everything as usual. Now the hard, frustrating, pull your hair out part: re-anchoring. We got the delta, our first anchor, up right away. Just our luck, though, promptly after we finished anchoring, the anchors wrapped around the keel, and each other. We could not fix that from on top of the boat, so Daddy dived under it, and I proudly slacked and monitored the anchor line. It turned out all okay (besides the fact that the whole ordeal took 6 ½ hours).
On better terms, I had so much fun on Halloween. I dressed up as a scary pirate (I’m serious!) and trick or treated in a few different neighborhoods, and plazas. I dressed my stuffed animal gorilla, Joey, up as my trusty parrot. It was great! I got 108 pieces of candy, and promptly had a sugar crash Halloween evening.
Another highlight of Hilton Head was hoisting Daddy up the mast. As usual, something broke, and this time, it was our radar. So, Mommy and I hoisted Daddy up the mast to take the radar unit down, so we could send it off. Guess what? After daddy successfully came down with the radar unit, I got to go all of the way to the very top of the mast! That is 63 ½ feet in the air! I was totally safe and comfy in the bosuns chair at the top. The view was amazing. I loved it. Daddy asked Whitefoot where I was and she had no clue to look up. We had her running and running around the boat. She was going crazy looking for me. I could see Stardust’s long shadow going far away from the boat, out onto the water. Now Mommy wants to go up.
Well, that’s all that has happened to us. Not much, huh. Until next blog, see you!