Into the Hurricane

Part I

So we woke up this morning and Dad was talking to Mom on the phone. Dad said Mom was down stairs in the guest bedroom listening to the wind howl all night. She said she was so glad the night is over and that it is daylight. But now the water is coming up. Zani and I ate breakfast as Mom called Dad back again and they talked. She told Dad that our windows had been fluttering like canvas last night from Irene's fury. They called each other like every fifteen minutes and talked for a while.
Nervous for Mom, we finished our breakfast.

Mom said that there was a dock floating in the side yard. She said the water was half way up the tires in the garage and that the water came up to the landing of our front steps. In the half-hour she talked to Dad the water came up a foot. Then we heard Mom say "Oh my goodness!! Oh my goodness!!!" Dad was asking her what was wrong. She told him that the creek room stairs were floating away. Our one thousand pound concrete stairs were ripped off the house by the flood water and pushed away from the house!

Not long after that Dad decided we were leaving. "Girls! Hurry up and pack your stuff, we're going down there!"

Dad went up on deck to lower the dingy and to ask François, if he could keep an eye on the boat for us while we're gone, amongst other things.
Zani and I went into our cabin and began taking all our casual clothes and all our work clothes and putting them in a bag. Then we packed our necessities. Dad came back around then and came down below. He was very tense. He listed in a hurry; what we needed to do, who he needed to call, and when we needed to leave. Then he said he needed something to eat, he couldn't focus. I gave him a poptart and his hand was shaking as he ate it. His adrenaline was pounding, as were all of ours.

While Dad called Mr. Matt to ask him if he could get us a rental car, Zani and I started packing everything else. We began sorting through food. What food we could leave, what food we'd take on the way, and what we would do with the refrigerated food. We got lots of water, because we weren't sure how long it would be until stores would open down there. Dad was tying stuff down on deck by now, as Zani and I hurriedly went through the food. Dad came down and told us we had an hour to get out of here. The car rental places close at 12:00 and Mr. Matt is going to pick us up at 11:15 and the rental place was about 30 minutes away. We had to hurry.

Dad hurriedly packed his clothes as Zani and I secured our belongings that were left on the boat for the storm. It was already raining outside from Irene. Finally the boat was secured and the things were packed, so we started bringing our gear out into the rain and into the dingy. Dad went around the boat with last minute checks and tie-downs.

Art came over and after a little storm chit-chat, offered us to use the space in his dingy for our belongings. Zani started piling the food, laundry, trash, and duffel bags into the two dinghy's along with our pillows and my computer. François and Marie (with their miniature poodle, Rosilie) came over on their dingy and also offered their assistance. Dad showed François where the key was so he could go down below if he needed to. The boaters behind us wished us good luck as we stepped off Ilira, leaving her to fend for herself. I got in Art's dingy, and followed Dad and Zani who followed François and Marie to the Marina. It was long way into the dingy dock, but thankfully the rain let up.

Art looked like an old time sailor with his white beard and tanned skin. We talked about his grandchildren and his home in NJ. He seemed a nice guy. Our dingy parade reached the marina and we all tied our dinghy's up. Zani, Art, and I, unloaded the dinghys as Françios and Dad tried to find the harbormaster to see if we could keep the boat on the mooring until we got back.

We unloaded all our stuff onto the dock and then I went to find Dad to ask him what to do with our stuff. Dad was in the Marina driveway talking to Mr. Matt and his wife, Miss Alison. I hugged Mr. and Mrs. then went back and brought all our stuff and packed into their little black car. Once it was packed and we were ready to go. Dad shook Art and François hands and thanked them. Françios gave us his contact information and then we were off. We all piled into their new car and left the marina. The first thing Miss Alison did when we were all buckled in the car was wrap her arms around Zani and I and declare to her husband: "For the first time I out number you!" (referring to us three girls against Dad and Mr. Matt)

As we found out on the car ride to their home, it wasn't easy for us to get a rental car. Most of the car rental places Mr. Matt had called were round-trip cars. They wouldn't let us go one-way to NC. The ones that were one way, when we told them we were going to NC wouldn't let us get a car. They finally found an airport that rented cars one-way that would let us go. But first we had to go back to their house.

We pulled into their driveway and got out. We took out the refrigerated food and packed it into a cooler they gave us. Then Miss Alison went into full-fledged Mother Mode. She started giving us various bags for us to use and asking if we wanted orange juice, Gatorade, or soda, "because you guys are going to want something besides water and I could pour it into little bottles for you. You don't want just water, you'll want something with flavor." "No, thanks were fine." Zani and I said. And she'd wave us off, until Dad talked her out of the Orange juice. So she got us apple juice in bottles, instead. She is a very sweet person. We are fortunate to have such good friends.

Then she invited us inside their home. We said hi to Ryan, the youngest of her two sons, and then he gave us a tour. Then we helped Miss Alison take down all the outside furniture and put it by the shed for the storm. Then as quick as we arrived we left. Miss Alison took Ryan to his baseball game and Mr. Matt took us to the airport to get us a rental car.

The airport was not far away from their house and soon we had a car. We'd asked for a mid-size car for when were in NC so we could get around easier.
Once we got the car we drove it to Mr. Matt's car and we unloaded our stuff from his car and into ours in the rain. It was raining a lot, but as we know now, we'd see plenty more later.

So after thanking Mr. Matt, we got into the car. I sat in front and Zani sat in the back. Then we drove out of the airport and headed for NC; into the oncoming hurricane. We headed into Irene's fury, not knowing what we'd see when we got home.

Part II

For most of the car ride I was Daddy's little navigator and weather watcher. When we first headed out I helped find the roads and turns until we got onto the highway.

We were in a little car, for a very long ride, never mind the fact that we were driving through the hurricane. But the rain was the worst part. During the whole trip it only stopped raining twice. Each for about a half hour and it took us about 12-13 hours to get home. It was monotonous. We only got relief when we went under overpasses, which stopped the rain only for a second, before it would come down in a 'splat' as we came out form under the over-pass and it would pour down on us once again. The pelts of rain hitting the windshield continually, was the worst part about driving through the hurricane.

Dad was almost constantly getting calls. Three people were calling him for our navigation and weather: they told us what Irene was doing and which highways and/or bridges were closed. We also had Mom and my grandparents calling us along the way.

There were very few driver's on the south-bound lanes of the highway. We were the only ones on a bridge once and we were all a little spooked. But we noticed three cars behind us and felt relieved.

We met a family driving from Maine to their house in Maryland at the gas station in MD. They, too, were trying to get home for the storm.
Then it was just us and a small pod of drivers who were riding into the hurricane. We drove right through the eye of the storm. I tracked where we were on my laptop as we went a long. Around eleven-thirty Dad and I saw a lot of fallen trees on the highway. The lanes were covered by fallen leaves in a layer an inch and a half thick. Trees were down on all sides as we drove. The fallen tree and leaf spots were patchy. Some places it seemed like a tornado came through, other places seemed barely touched. We drove through this for around an hour.
I was getting pretty tired by now. It was a long day with a lot of stress and my eyes wanted to close. But I didn't want to fall asleep for fear of Dad falling asleep. Zani had been asleep in the back for an hour or two.
Dad said I could go to sleep. I told him I wanted to stay up and help keep him awake. We debated about this and finally we decided that if Dad was feeling tired he'd wake me. So I let my head rest and closed my eyes, it couldn't have been five minutes later, when all of a sudden a huge gust of wind blew hard on the car. I jerked upright. "I'm staying up." I said. Dad didn't object.

The wind blew hard after that for a while. We'd go by some trees and it would slow then we'd come out and the wind would blow strong against the small car, again. It was very dark. The power was out and the only lights were our headlights and a few other driver's. Then suddenly, it looked like a spinning tornado was going to cross the road right in front of us. Then it just disappeared into thin air. It freaked me out. The same thing happened a few more times and then Dad figured it out: They were radio towers. Because they had no lights on them and with the wind blowing and clouds moving it made it look like the radio towers were mini tornadoes.

Dad and I cheered softly (so we wouldn't wake Zani) as we crossed the border into NC.
As we neared home the rained slowed and then finally stopped. It was so nice not to hear the loud, static-like sound of pelting rain! :)
Soon we were crossing the New Bern Bridge. We were the only ones on it. (Granted it was like one in the morning the morning after the hurricane. Who, besides us, would be crazy enough to do that?)

Zani woke up then and we all looked around to see the signs of the hurricane. We saw a few angled signs, but basically it was just dark and quiet. Their were no other headlights to greet us until we got to Bayboro. We saw a few downed trees, but not a lot of damage. We started to joke around saying "Mom made all that up just so she could see us. She was probably so lonely without us she made the whole thing up."
Of course we knew she hadn't, but we hadn't see much damage. Then around fifteen minutes away from the house we started seeing leaning telephone poles and fallen trees. We had to go around a fallen tree in the road as we tried to get to Mom. We rode over its branches and continued ahead. We dodged a few more small trees and branches in the road as we neared Mom's farm. Telephone poles were now leaning a lot and one leaned right over the road. The pole was just high enough we could squeeze under it, so we did. That was pretty scary, even though we knew the power was off.

We were parallel to the road leading to Mom's farm when we saw a humongous puddle ahead of us. We couldn't see its end. But we did see an abandoned car in the middle of the road in the puddle (more like a small pond) about thirty car lengths ahead of us. So carefully we started driving through the puddle. About half way to the car Dad opened his door to see how high the water was. It was getting too deep, we had to go back. So Dad slowly backed the car back to the dry spot by Mom's farm.

We sat in the car and stared at the water for awhile. Then finally Dad said he wants to know how deep it gets. So he called Mom and told her our problem and said he was going to walk out into the water and see if we can get through. So Dad and I got out of the car and walked through the water for a ways. Air bubbles came up through the cracks in the road as the water pushed against us, flowing from on filled ditch to the other across the road. Dad and I were mid-calf deep and we hadn't reached the car yet. We wouldn't be able to get through.
Besides that fact that the abandoned car was in the middle of the road. We woulda had to try going around the car into the deeper water near the overflowing ditch. And there is no way we'd make it by. So Dad and I turned around and waded through the water back to the car. We were so close! We drove all the way from Connecticut and fifteen minutes away from the house we couldn't get through. We were bummed. We'd probably wait there in the middle of the road for the water to go down low enough for us to drive through.

Once inside the car we called Mom and told her we couldn't get through. Then Mom came up with brilliant idea! We could go around! We could drive back to Bayboro and around. So we turned around and headed back about 20 miles.

We went under the precarious leaning telephone pole with the transformers on it again and rode around fallen trees and branches as we headed for Bayboro. We saw many more fallen trees on the way home. Trees wrapped in telephone wires, trees fallen near the road and branches everywhere. One the way home, we drove over, under, and around telephone wires and poles. As we neared home we saw the road we were going to take (the one with the puddle) blocked off by a fallen tree wrapped in telephone wires. We wouldn't have been able to get through anyway.

We headed home through the dark. We drove into our neighborhood at a slow pace and looked around. It was dark. The neighborhood had no power so the only light in the whole neighborhood were our headlights. There were a lot of fallen trees and branches. Then we pulled into our driveway. Half way down the driveway our path was blocked by a long deep pile of debris. A mixture of pine needles, pine cones, branches, docks and tons of other stuff.

It was too thick to drive over in our little car, so we got out, grabbed a bag or two, and walked over the debris to the house. The place was so quiet. There was no wind, no birds, no squirrels, the houses were dark and silent. The whole neighborhood was silent. It was the calm after the storm.

We marched up the front steps of our house and were greeted with Eddie's frantic barking. Mom came downstairs and let us in and we all hugged her while Eddie joyously licked us all. At two thirty in the morning we finally reached home after Irene.

Part III

We spent the next week cleaning up from Irene. We cut up the three docks, straightened Dad's palm tree and a few holly's and the cypresses. It took Zani and I over a week to shovel out all the debris, but with the neighbors generous help we finished it soon after. The mosquito population went nuts after the storm. We coated ourselves in bug spray before we went outside to clean up. We were without power for five days. Which meant no AC. So after a long day of cleaning up and fighting mosquitoes we'd take a cold shower and sleep with the windows open to try to cool down the hot and stuffy house. Dad got the cement stairs back in place and after about two weeks our yard looked almost un-affected by the storm- accept for a few yellow patches of grass where debris had smothered the grass. The garage took a lot longer to clean up. The water had come up at least 22-inches in our garage and the whole place was filthy.

But we have an AWESOME GOD! Who kept all of us safe. Thankfully the storm didn't do as much damage to us as it did to some others. One of my friend's teacher's, who was in her sixties, stepped outside onto her second story balcony to see what the weather was like during the storm, when the wind slammed the door shut, locking her outside in the height of the storm. She had to wait until the flood waters got high enough so she could jump off the balcony into the flood waters and swim to her house and get inside for safety. Others have all of their belongings piled at the side of the road. Their belongings had gotten all soaked by the flood waters. Some people were being cut out of their attacks weeks after Irene had passed. We are very blessed.

I made this video of Irene for you all to watch. It has pictures from our drive down and of some of the things Irene did in the area. I hope you enjoy the video.







God bless,

Victoria

North Cove to. . . ???

Last night we had a long talk about where we were going to stay for the now Cat 3 hurricane.

We narrowed it down to two places: Milford and Hamburg Cove.

-Milford

Pros:

• We would be at a dock so we could take some of the stuff off the boat.
  


• We know friends that are near by.






Cons:






• Milford is known for flooding.
  


• It is almost a full days sail away.






-Hamburg Cove







Pros:







• It was tucked up the CT river.



• It was only 1-3 hours away.
  


• Our friends are close by here too.






Cons:








• We would be on a mooring.



• We didn't know if there would be any moorings left.
  


• We would be so far up the river, that if there were any big debris we wouldn't be able to get out.





By the time we went to bed we had not made up our minds.




When I woke up this morning Dad was talking to some people on a mooring next to us. They suggested Hamburg Cove, they said that there were 60ft hills surrounding the harbor.




So we decided that that is where we would go. (I really didn't want to go back on the raging sea. And I also felt more comfortable on a mooring versus a dock.)






Man, was Dad anxious. He started the engine nearly 3 minutes after I woke up. And was determined to get there as fast as we could. When I say he was quite nervous that there might not be any moorings left, it's an understatement.




He kept asking us things like "Is there anybody else behind us?" "Do you think that boat ahead of us is going to the same place we are going?"






We were astonished that it was so close by. It was only an 1 hour away (and no, that's not because we were going too fast, never mind that that is a very hard thing to do in a sailboat. ;)




When we turned the corner we saw the quaint little harbor.








"Are there any moorings?" Dad asked anxiously to me.




"Yeah, I see at least one," I said looking through the binoculars.





As we got closer Dad instructed as to get the first mooring we see. "Dad look," we said, there was a selections of about a dozen to choose from.






We were very happy to be on a secure mooring ball with a low rate, and Dad, was overjoyed.








~








Once we got settled, we talked with the people on the 36ft Benteau in front of us. They were from Montreal, Canada and we later found out that they were heading to the Bahamas. The couple seemed very nice. They had a small little dog on board, slightly smaller than our little pup.




About 15 minutes later the couple came over in the dinghy and talked with us for a while. Their names were François and Marie. François looked to be around Dad's age. We all became friends very quickly. While we were chit-chatting with them, another man came by and said hi. His name was Art. He was one of those people that you could tell from a mile away that he was a sailor. He seemed quite friendly. He told us that this Cove was fresh-water. I couldn't wait to swim in it, I had never swam in freshwater before. After Art left we talked with François and Marie for a few minutes before they left to check out the showers at the clubhouse.




After they left I helped Daddy attach an extra line to the mooring chain with an extra shackle that Dad had. We threaded one of our long dock lines through it and attached it to one of our cleats as an extra storm line. This took a while however, and François and Marie were back. By the time we finished the sun was getting to us, and the water was trying to lure us in. And before we knew it we were all swimming in the freshwater.




The freshwater seemed so different than the saltwater we are all used to. Instead of pushing the water away when swimming, it felt like we were cutting through the water. I was so wicked cool.






Hamburg Cove seemed like a hotspot, many weekend boaters got moorings and spent the day swimming.

So many kids were jumping into the water off their decks that is sounded like a dozen flying fish splashing at the same time. Everyone there was having a blast, you would never guess that there was a hurricane a'comin'.

We swam over to EXP, the name of François's and Marie's boat. They introduced us to their miniature poodle, Rosilie. She is very cute (and a bit yappy I might add.) François told us that they got a rental car for a few days, and told us that there was a huge warehouse of boating supplies here that he wanted to go check out, otherwise they would have gone swimming with us. They asked us if we wanted anything while they were out. We thanked them, but we didn't need anything. We swam for a while longer before we got out to take our jib down. We had been undecided whether or not we wanted to take it down. But everyone else seemed to be taking theirs down, and we figured we better be on the safe side. This worked out much better than I thought it would. We were able to take it down quite easily and get it safely down below.




By this time we were quite hot, so we jumped into the water again. After a while we got out and decided to explore around the harbor in our dinghy. It seemed to go on forever. There was a channel just for the dinghies because if you went out of the channel soon enough you would be stuck. But as we went along there were sailboats and as we went in further there were more sailboats and they were good sizes (most of them were slightly smaller than our own sailboat.) We asked one of the guys who was on his sailboat how deep it was, he said is was 10ft as long as you stayed in the channel. That was kind of cool.




When we got back to Ilira, I made a nice dinner for the three of us. And we sat outside and ate. There was a very nice boat next to us that Dad like very much. We were wondering what kind of boat it was and Dad was hoping the owner would come so he could ask, when minutes later a guy who owned the boat came in a dinghy and boarded the vessel. So Dad got to ask him what kind of boat it was. That was pretty cool.




There was a pretty sunset at the end of the day, which Victoria couldn't resist taking a picture of. :)













Hope you will all be safe through the storm. God bless.






"May you experience the Love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully." (-Ephesians 3:19 NLT ) And may "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord," (2 Peter 1:2)






Zan

Cutty Hunk to North Cove, CT River

We left kind of early this morning, a smaller boat name Gratitude that was on a mooring beside us, wished us good luck. They seemed nice folks. We decided to keep going and try to tuck into Long Island Sound for Irene.

Dad took up most of the day calling different harbors in Long Island Sound trying to find a slip in a safe harbor. We were kept busy, memorizing names, crossing off people from the list, looking up numbers, ect. Right now we are trying to aim for Millford, CT.

But I really shouldn't be writing this post because it was not very pleasant for me, it was quite rough and I ended up getting sick. :( I hate that. It was a long day too.

But after I ate some, I felt much better and a bit more lively. And the waves were much smaller by now. I was talking with Dad when he interrupted me to ask Victoria if that was the green marker; pointing off into the distance. Something was wrong. That marker wasn't suppose to be there. "...No I think it's two light houses..." Victoria replied.

Dad put the boat on autopilot and went up to the front of the cockpit to get a better look. "There is a lot of rough water around there splashing up on it. Is there a sandbar there?" Dad asked more to himself than anyone else. He raced back to look at his chart plotter. "It should be 60ft here," Dad confirmed. Dad swiped the binoculars from the cockpit table and peered through them.

"Victoria is that thing moving? ...That things moving." Dad replied to his own question anxiously.

"What is that?" I asked staring at the thing in wonder as Dad raced back and put the boat on standby and veered us off course a bit. Dad leaned out the cockpit to get a better look; as Victoria and I took turns looking through the binoculars.

"Guys, I think its a submarine." Dad said straining his eyes, "I don't think so Dad, it looks like there are two of them." Victoria concluded.

"I think it is." I said peering through the binoculars. I handed them to Dad and he looked through them, "Yeah it is, look ," he said, "it's coming towards us, that second thing is the end of it; see."

We all exclaimed, bewildered, as the two things formed into a long sub. The sub rose to the surface. As we got closer we could see a hatch open and three guys come out and look around. It was so wicked cool. Dad called them on VHS and thanked them for not surfacing underneath us. Of course they didn't reply, but Dad's pretty sure they heard us.

We were all hungry and cold as we entered between two jetties into the CT River. We decided to tuck into North Cove.

We past a sign that said that the orange streamers were free for transients.

We looked around for the "orange streamers" but couldn't see any, the grayness and fog didn't help either. We scanned the mooring field for the steamers.

"I think it just means those orange things," Dad said pointing to what we later found out were orange noodles with the line going through the center of it. Almost all of the moorings had swimming noodles on them, the problem was that non of the moorings had just orange noodles.

Dad steered us over to a small mooring. "Dad, this one was a green noodle, what does the green noodle mean?" I called.

"I didn't see, just try to get it," Dad shouted back to me.

Victoria and I got the line up with the boat hook but the eye of the line was much too small to fit over our cleats.

We moved around the field looking for the "right" mooring. But it was still windy in the cove and Dad was having a hard time getting close to the moorings. We tried a couple more, but they had names on them. None of them seemed right.

We were all getting aggravated and we were hungry... you get my point.

We spotted a lady on a sailboat and asked her what to do. She pointed to two moorings and told us that either of those where free. On each of those moorings were small faded orange strips of ribbon. We thanked her and soon we were secured on a mooring.

Personally I was joyous that we were no longer moving and there were no longer big waves.

Later when I was making dinner a transiet boat came in and asked us which mooring had a orange streamer and Dad and Victoria were able to point out the last one.

We are going to sit tight for tonight and see what the morning brings.

God bless you all greatly and "may you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully," (Ephesians 3:19NLT)

Zani

Bassets Island to Cutty Hunk Island

So we woke up this morning and checked the weather. It seems that Irene is going to go right up The Cape Cod Canal. Right where our mooring is. So Dad says he's thinking about ducking into Long Island Sound (instead of leaving the boat at the canal and flying down) So we decided to take the boat over to Cutty Hunk Island.

It was a little windier today than when we pulled into bassets, so we did a little sailing and I took a shift at the helm. That was fun.

After passing a few other islands we came into the marina. One of the islands we passed had a ton of cows and no fencing. You could just motor over there on your dingy and try to pet a cow. (Which we saw one family do) After we set the anchor in the marina we lowered the dingy and motored ashore. After tying our dingy we walked onto the Island. Their is a tall hill on Cutty Hunk that overlooks the whole Island so we headed up to see the view.

When we reached the top we could see the whole Island and the other Islands nearby. It was cool. We had a 360 view of the ocean surrounding the Island. It was pretty awesome.

The Island was so pretty. I loved walking around and taking pictures. :)

After splitting an ice cream three ways, we headed back to the boat. Once on board we checked the weather again and talked to people. Irene is still heading toward NC and then on up through Cape Cod. Irene is currently a category three hurricane and is expected to hit NC on Friday. Mom is hurrying around securing things and getting ready for the storm.

We are going to stay here tonight and see what the weather brings in the morning. Hopefully we can continue on, but we might have to turn around and go home.

God bless,

Victoria

Day Two in Bassets Island

We woke up this morning, ate breakfast, and then went up into the cockpit to see what the Manns were doing. Maggie and her Dad were setting up a rope swing, for when we splash into the water later. :)

Shortly after, we all got into our bathing suits and went for a swim. All of us were in the water for a little while. There were a ton of jellyfish, so we threw them back and forth to each other.
After a while Maggie got out their surf board and was sitting on it. Then the three of us came up with a fun idea, we decided to, all three of us, sit on the surf board and paddle around our two rafted boats. Well that was some idea, we got half way around and fell off, then half way around the second boat, we all fell off again. But falling off was half the fun! Then we all paddled over to the Island and walked a third of the way around it, then hopped back onto the surfboard and paddled out. We had a lot of fun =D






Then after making a swimming obstacle course out of various floating items, Mr. Mann and Maggie finally talked Zani and I into trying their rope swing. It was our first times doing that, but it was fun!




Then finally, we came out of the water after three hours of swimming, and sat in the sun on the bow. The warm sun dried us all off. Then Maggie went back over to her boat and she and her Dad had lunch while sis and I stayed up on the bow.

Then Dad came over and told us that Irene is heading toward North Carolina. He says he's thinking about turning around and going back home and putting the boat at our mooring on the Cape, then fly to NC to help Mom, and have Zani and I stay at our grandparents house until he gets back, and then we'd start the trip again. Dad says we'll stay here tonight and see what the weather is like in the morning. I hope Irene will diminish to nothing, but God is in control, no matter what.

After our talk with Dad, we had our lunch and then talked a bit more with the Manns. Then it was time for them to leave, so we said our goodbye's and watched them go.

After they left, we chilled out some, then checked the weather and called Mom and other people about our situation, and then finally got ready for bed. Which is where I should be. lol

Goodnight,

Victoria

Bassets Island

So were off sailing again!

Today was a beautiful day. Bright blue sky, deep blue sea, and a bright sunny day.

So we started off the trip with a short little jaunt to Bassets Island. It was a gorgeous day and a calm trip over.

Our friends the Manns, who we had invited over, came and rafted with us after dinner. It was good to see them as we didn't get to see them much this summer. So Maggie, (who's Zani's age) and her Dad, came and talked on our boat for a while. We ate minty chocolatey cookie goodness while staring at the clear stars overhead. It was a nice night.

We talked for a while then we all headed to bed. Maggie and her Dad said they could stay till around noon tomorrow. That's good, because we are planning to go to Cutty Hunk Island around that time tomorrow. I'm tired, and I'm looking forward to swimming with Maggie and her Dad in the morning.

God Bless,

Victoria