#13 What has happened to me?

I used to be a fairly typical professional, mother of two who spent her time working, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, caring for the house, cleaning, dropping off/picking up kids, cleaning, arranging social activities, cleaning, and vacationing in fun places a couple times each year. You recognize the type. Then, this pirate comes along.

Last year’s trip to the balloon festival with our friend David was magical. One of my favorite pictures of Butch and me was taken with the backdrop of balloons. We experienced a magnificent sunset and slowly motored back to the marina under a star drenched sky with Chloe (David’s granddaughter), Reese (Butch’s son), and me lying on the front of the boat inventing games with the small hole in our blanket. It was an evening I’ll always remember. So, no doubt I was excited when Butch said we could take our boat to the festival this year.

I must admit, we are getting better at launching and landing MoonShine. With a bit of experience under my belt, I feel a bit more confident with my responsibilities. Not sure if Butch feels the same or if he is just biting his tongue more often. Setting off knowing we were to have a leisurely sail instead of our typical 100-150 mile full speed ahead 8-10 hour day in the blazing sun was a dream come true.

Along the way we saw absolutely gorgeous scenery and even more spectacular homesteads. Where do all these people get all this money?? And what we saw is just a smattering of what is scattered throughout the country. The back drop of the mountains, billowing clouds, and lush greenery as we sailed made me wonder why we would ever consider taking MoonShine back to Florida. Oh ya, its not winter yet, is it? But why was the red pin of the balloon festival getting farther away instead of closer? As navigator, I’m supposed to keep an eye on these things. Simply showing Butch a snapshot of our location doesn’t give him quite enough information to successfully navigate the twists, turns, and forks of the river ahead. Who’s to know that what I thought was the ‘wake’ of our Google Maps blue dot of a boat was actually the view out the windshield? Captain Butch turned us around and got us back on track.

Balloon Festival 2024 started out by us not being able to set our anchor. We even tried using our mud anchor (insert appropriate boat language here) with no luck. After several attempts, we were finally successful, albeit a bit close to shore. After feeding the hungry beast of a captain, I was informed that we were taking our new paddle board to shore. Let me point out- we’ve never tried out this paddle board, have never been on a paddle board together and that at one time I was rather athletic. (The operative word in all that is WAS). Of course I’m going to laugh hysterically, I will be 66 on Sunday-happy birthday to me- and here I am sitting on the back of a paddle board because neither of us could stand up on it. I’m wearing a two piece bathing suit hoping that no one I know is anywhere within 15 miles of me. My dress is balled up in a water proof bag. I’m trying to help paddle. I’ve already documented that I canoed across the state of Michigan so I have my paddling license but am told not to paddle because I’m throwing off the captain’s strategic paddling system. And when I calmly inquire how we will disembark, I’m told I’m being negative. Not negative, Honey, I just know that my body needs a long lead time on motor planning! I won’t even try to describe getting off the paddle board in 18 inches of water with large slippery jagged edged rocks underfoot. Just use your imagination and multiply it by two.

The corn dog at the festival was delicious and by then I knew we probably wouldn’t die on the way back out to the boat but we still had to get off the paddle board and onto the boat. Why am I so adverse to just falling into the water and climbing up the ladder onto the swim platform? I don’t know but for some reason, that is just never an option for me. So, I tried to get off the paddle board from a seated position directly onto the swim platform. Luckily Butch was facing forward as I attempted to roll myself walrus style onto the platform. There’s a loud plunk as I landed on my belly on the platform which caused Butch to turn to look at me face down on the platform once again laughing hysterically as I gave myself time to regroup and figure out how in the heck I was going to get up off my stomach when there was no room to roll to either side.

Shortly after getting back on the boat, our friend David called. He and our friend Max had planned on motoring out to join us for dinner and to see the balloons (that had yet to be inflated). David reported a wicked summer storm had popped up and that he and Max would be delayed at the least if not aborting their trip all together. We still had partly sunny skies two miles from them. Fast forward 10 minutes…maybe we should have prepared a bit after David’s call. But no… The wind picked up and the rain came in bucketfuls. We rushed to close the windows of the boat but failed to remove the outdoor windshield canvas or replace the plastic cover on the leaky hatch over our bed. The weather was way too severe to attempt either of those tasks. I covered the bed with garbage bags and put towels on top of them to absorb the rain. Fixing the hatch moved up a few pages on Butch’s to do list. The more significant issue for me, but not seeming to phase Butch in the least, was that he could not see out the front of the boat through the canvas cover. Since we were already anchored close to shore and had trouble setting the anchor, Butch had to turn on the engines to keep the boat away from the shore. He calmly steered the boat around without being able to see. I don’t think that is OSHA approved. I’ll be filing a complaint later this week.

The storm blew over relatively quickly but the clouds remained so no sunset and no stars. And no balloons. David was able to motor out to us, even though Max had given up and headed home earlier in the evening. After getting David’s boat tied to ours (rafting- one point for using a boat term), we had dessert on the upper helm. After visiting, David set sail for home and Butch and I went in for the night. Oh oh! The salon was full of bugs!! We’d left the door and a couple screen-less windows open with blue lights turned on in the salon. We thought bugs were not attracted to blue lights but we were WRONG! Bugs were flying around and perched everywhere near a light. My first instinct was to swim ashore and walk the 30 miles home. Thankfully, Butch’s calmer head prevailed and as instructed, I got out the vacuum cleaner and started sucking up bugs. We were quite a team. Butch with a tiny flashlight pointing out the runaway bugs and me sucking them up. Butch fell asleep immediately after the bug hunt. I was a bit wired. Awhile later I went back into the salon and it was filled with bugs again. Either bugs were hidden in the drapes and corners of the boat that we didn’t initially see or some of those little buggers (pun intended) flew back out of the vacuum cleaner. Either way, I plugged the end of the vacuum cleaner and started killing bugs with paper towels. I went on three more bug hunts after that. Finally at about 1:00 am no more bugs were appearing and I went to sleep.

The next morning was glorious. We sat on the upper helm enjoying the cooler temperatures that the storm brought in and discussed our options for the day. We decided to head home. It was a beautiful trip. We outran that day’s afternoon storm and had MoonShine settled back in her slip before the wind and rain hit once again.

It seems that my dreams and expectations of boating don’t even come close to the reality we face each time we go out. But I wouldn’t give up these experiences for anything. I am grateful every minute of every day that I have this incredible man in my life and that we are fortunate enough to afford these incredible adventures. It’s an exciting world we live in and as long as our bodies and billfolds hold up, we’re going to continue to explore!

“Some people spend their life studying maps but never start the journey; other people blast off the starting line full speed ahead without first charting a course. Most of us could benefit from a better balance between planning and doing.”