It's been a year!?? How we celebrated Luna Sea's anniversary.

As some of you know, we have an annual vacation the week of July 4th.  Last year we just happened to spend that week off buying and bringing Luna Sea home.  How'd we spend our 1 year anniversary as "sailors"?  (We still use that title loosely.)  Well, let's break it down.

Mark and Molly checking out the empty beach.

I'm actually in school this summer - I don't generally take classes in the summer, but I'm getting close to graduation and really could not turn down the chance to take Cake Decorating.  I'll admit I'm a little obsessed with it.  (If you follow us on Instagram, you know this)  Because of my classes, we had to wait until Wednesday to head out.  We loaded up and provisioned on Tuesday evening, then set out Wednesday morning - you know, when hurricane Arthur was directly offshore of Savannah?  Yeah, then.  We headed out Wassaw sound, into the ocean, south to Ossabaw sound - about a 4 hour sail, normally, but 5-ish in the choppy-ass seas.  I have to say this was a weekend of firsts.  The first time we were in choppy 6-8 foot seas (totally different from 6-8 ft rolling, beautiful seas).  The first time we went up a big ass wave and had the anchor (on the bow/ very front tippy point of boat) go under water as we rode down the wave.  The first time that we were on a big ass wave at the same time a big ass gust came up and blew us over so far that our genoa (front sail - and the only sail we had up) dipped into the water.  Yeah, it was a fabulous weekend of firsts.  But you know what?  The boat handled the seas beautifully.  She was stable and secure - and minus the percolator that went crashing onto the floor down below*, the small painting that apparently needs one more strip of velcro to keep it from falling down, and the as yet un-velcro-ed salon cushions having a good ole time bobbing around down there as well, it was a non-event.  The crew (uh, us) were definitely more worried about the seas than the boat was.  But we made it into the sound - the calm, quiet sound, and anchored near the beach.  

The beach on the north side of Wassaw island is the happening place to be on the weekend/holidays.  But we were nestled in to the almost vacant beach on the south side.  We pretty much choose those empty beaches over the crowds whenever we can - unless we're feeling particularly social, which is rare.  

As Wednesday afternoon turned into evening, the winds began to pick up and so did the waves -  and so we decided it would be best to go ahead and hunker down in the most protected area we could find.  There was a hurricane passing by, after all.  

We moved a little further up into Wassaw creek, just shy of one of our local hangouts, Odingsell.  We dropped our awesomelyawesome anchor and spent the night in the cockpit watching the storms go around us.  Literally.  There were storms all around us.  The wind was howling.  But our anchor held, and we stayed dry and cozy as we slept under the stars.  It really was an oddly good night's sleep, considering.

Storm Bands from Hurricane Arthur

While we were tucked safely away from the dock, there was some action going on at the marina.  We got calls and texts from people checking on us - but they were actually in the thick of it.  One boat broke loose and smooshed into another one.  Someone's sail came loose and had to be secured by multiple good samaritans who where hanging out on their boats for the storm.  Trees were blown down all over the island and power was out all over the place.  Good thing we were on our boat with solar panels and battery power ;)  

Hurricane sunset

Thursday was a bit windy and rough as well, so we just stayed where we were and enjoyed multiple trips to the beach and paddling around on our iSUP.  Paddling in 20 knot winds is basically the equivalent of being on a treadmill, FYI.

Friday we pulled anchor and headed across the inlet to Bradley Point.  This actually included another trip into the ocean, as we've got too deep of a draft to shoot right on across the sound.  But it was interesting to see the difference a day or two makes in weather.  It was a smooth, calm trip over.  

We were some of the first to arrive.  Bradley point is another one of those beaches where EVERYONE goes on the weekend.  And a holiday?  Forget about it.  It was packed.  Since we got there early, we were able to snag a bit of a shady spot under a topsy turvy palm tree and hung out all day.  Around 2, when everyone else was roasting and wading into the water to try and cool off, we just paddled back to Luna Sea for showers and a nap in the shady cockpit.  It was a nice change from the days when we were in the pack of roasters trying to stay cool on a float in the water.  We headed back to the beach when it cleared out and the temps dropped.  We also managed to let Libby have a heat stroke.  Poor little wiener.  We held her in the water until she cooled down and then got her back to the boat for the night.  She's a stubborn little sucker.  She can't really mosey - she's always running ahead and trying to figure out where we're going.  Her 4" legs sure make for a lot of extra steps when she goes the wrong way.  And throw in the fact that she never thinks to go in the water to cool off unless there's a toy involved, and you get one hot puppy.  

Libby lives to walk another beach.

Saturday morning we loaded up the dogs and headed on the inside (up the ICW) back to the marina.  It looked like a small storm was offshore and we'd had enough action for the weekend.  After an afternoon of boat projects we finally called it a weekend.  We seem to be transitioning from "projects that would be nice" to "projects that are required" - but that's another blog post.  

*PS:  when a percolator crashes to a boat floor it sounds like all hell has broken loose.  I almost didn't want to go down there and see what havoc had been wreaked.