Back to the Boat

My mom and Bob. 

I finally made it back to the boat after a lovely time in Arkansas with my family. My mom and her boyfriend Bob were kind enough to give me a ride to Texas, quite the drive especially if you stop for delicious fresh bread at random bakeries in backwoods Arkansas which, obviously, we did. It must have been February in Texas, though, because we had rain and unpleasant weather the entire time right up until an hour before they left on Sunday. Then, of course, it was beautiful.

So no sailing for us. But we did go to West Marine, always an adventure, and my mom accidentally dropped a winch handle overboard while demonstrating to Bob how you tack. My brother also dropped a winch handle overboard when he visited, so Vlad is thinking that this is somehow genetic and that soon I'll be tossing the chart plotter off the starboard side while letting the autopilot slip off the stern. Let's hope I dodged that DNA bullet!

I was incredibly happy to have my mom aboard Bettie. She sailed all over the world in the 70s, filling my head with tales of storms in the North Sea and coral atolls in the Pacific. A true traveler, through and through. She and Bob have a trawler now and are planning to do the Great Loop in a year or so. They have a blog that's on a bit of a hiatus here, but they'll be back at it soon enough.

Aren't they adorable?!