Hurricane Sandy!

Libby and I are having an exciting day! Hurricane Sandy's going through the Bahamas right now, but we're getting some pretty serious wind and rain from the outer bands! Yesterday, I battened everything down, but didn't bother with the bimini canvas top, and this afternoon about 3, I ended up hanging onto the straps, sure it was about to take off, frame and all, for what seemed like a long time...prob'ly only 10 minutes! It'd been grey and rainy all morning, but when it stopped, I'd considered taking Libby to shore, even though I had the dinghy all tied up behind the boat with the outboard tightly covered. I was on the phone with nice trawler-friend & neighbor, Jo Ellen, who suggested I "wait until this next squall goes by!" Then, POW, we got hit hard! I tried standing on the deck to measure the wind speed with our little hand-held anamometer (where's spell-ck?!) and it showed 55 mph before I had to get back inside because it got a LOT stronger with blinding rain! This is certainly a bigger deal than Isaac, but it's not over yet...supposed to last through tomorrow. Things'll be fine for about an hour and then we'll get blasted again! At least I was able to get the bimini down while there was a lull! I'm sure glad we're not in the Bahamas right now! Who can believe we'd have a storm this late? Daren's back in Modesto and will be home Nov. 3rd. He loves MVE's big design projects and his co-workers and has a great schedule...2 weeks on and 2 weeks off! We signed up for a whole month on the mooring thru the 18th of November, but I'm kind of hoping we'll stay through the winter. I've met so many nice friends here and even found a good church last Sunday (New Life Assembly of God, so I felt right at home!) I met the young family on S/V No Mas, who'd just started going there, too! Mimzie and Steve have 2 great kids onboard and 2 dogs that we took over to Boot Key where the 3 of them had a great and exhausting time Tuesday! Our good friends from MO, Cheryl and Don are coming to Daytona Beach, so we'll rent a car and take Libby up to see them! I'm hoping we'll have lots of visitors down here this winter. We're finding some really great restaurants! Our new favorite is the Keys Fisheries, where you can get stone crab claws for $1.25 apiece! Served cold with mustard sauce and a knock-out view of the bay! The best part is, it's right across the street from the marina! About a week ago, Daren and I saw a catamaran, Speck come into the harbor. We'd met in the Bahamas about 16 yrs ago! (Who could forget THAT name!) We were sure there'd be new owners by now, but I was happy to see Irwin in his dinghy on my way to the marina and I recognized him right away, but he wasn't so sure about me! I had the advantage, having seen his boat, and of course, we had our trawler, New Issue back then! Our friend Candy in Texas is looking for long-lost boat friends Linda and Prentis on S/V Oceana, last address here in Marathon! Let me know if you've seen them lately, and I'll let her know! That's the great thing about boats...seeing great friends all the time, and you can always pick up where you left off! No matter how different people are, boats are a great common thread! It's always good to find similarities, and we all have SOMETHING in common, whether you're a Christian, conservative, dog-lover, or foodie! I'm still on the Paleo Plan and feeling great! : )