Dec 24, 2014: sitting on the bow of my boat, contemplating CA

I sit on the bow of the Dorado, breeze buffeting me, considering my 2-week trip back to CA. I feel a certain sadness at leaving, but look forward to seeing friends and family back there. I'll miss my neighbors, miss the wonderful sunrises, miss the warm waters and hermit crabs, miss the termites building tunnels across the roads to forage on the other side, miss the friendly locals, and miss the sudden showers. I worry whether I've secured the boat well enough that the lines will not chafe on something and cut themselves or damage the boat (I removed the bow cleat since it was very poorly attached to the deck.....but have tied two mooring lines to various things and feel fairly confident....).

The trip will require me to get up before 5am (no worries), then take a bus or hitch a ride across St John, take the 7am ferry to St Thomas, catch a taxi to the airport, go through customs, fly to Miami, fly to LA, fly to SF, and catch the airporter. I'll cross 4 time zones and end up getting into bed at 9:30(well, 1:30am my time) at best.....

I thought of bring back some shells for gifts, but that is apparently illegal. They confiscate something like 800lbs of them each week at the airport...and even collecting shells is illegal in the parks. So, I took some photos...

...a final sunrise

 

...a dorado pillow I found aboard

 

 

...a mussel shell of the incredibly thin local mussels

 

 

...a conch and another gastropod on Peter's table

...tiny (but full-grown) oysters

...and the beach shells and coral at Brown Bay.

I look forward to CA....and already look forward to coming back here to my tiny house on the bay.