Shake Up Cruise (Day 6 and 7) Wilbur's Ruff Life

 

The private little anchorage we hated to leave.

 

While we really enjoyed the quiet and peaceful anchorage of Day 5 on our Shake Up Cruise, we didn't want to wear out our welcome and decided we should leave.

But where to go? Our original destination for this week of cruising had been Caya Costa. However, after motoring the entire way (we did put up the main which was basically ornamental) when we reached Sarasota we realized we'd have to motor like crazy to get to Caya Costa and would then need to turn right around and head back. If we've learned anything after living aboard these past few years it's that trying to keep a schedule usually means nothing but trouble.

So we stopped.

We left our little anchorage and headed back toward Marina Jack's. We'd been of the mind that we'd anchor outside the mooring field but after checking it out and seeing pretty slim pickings we went ahead and rented a mooring once again.

I really wanted Wilbur to get a little excercise (at least something other than diving off the boat in an attempt to save Hans) so we loaded him into the dinghy and headed ashore. Poor Wilbur. He's really the worst dog in the world to try to walk. He's been like this since he was a pup and let's face it, that's never going to change. Every blade of grass must be sniffed, every light post needs to be marked, and heavenly days!! who pissed on that hedge? Wilbur's nose goes into overdrive and it literally drips like a leaky faucet while he jerks me this way and that. I know some training would probably take care of that but I'm ashamed to admit we've not gone that route.

This time we left our dinghy at the marina and walked on over to O'Leary's (where we'd eaten a couple of days before). It took a bit of time since we were dragging Wilbur but we finally got there. After passing a woman talking a blue streak into her cell phone, complete with crazy arm waving, we found a spot at the bar. Wilbur was surprisingly good and after lapping up a bowl full of water he settled down under our bar stools. We decided to order a late lunch (which meant I wouldn't have to cook dinner! Yaaaay!) and of course it was just after our food arrived that I realized Wilbur had puked. Gross, foamy, green puke right under our stools. While reading the 'rules for dogs' sign hanging up for all to see, I yanked a bunch of napkins out of the dispenser and tried desperately to mop up the mess hoping no one would notice what I was doing. And then the hand sanitizer machine was on the fritz and I since my hands hadn't really touched anything I thought 'Oh the hell with it', and ate my quesadilla anyway.

In the middle of all this, the crazy arm waving cell phone talker we'd walked past earlier, yanked out the stool on the other sided of Hans, climbed up and never missing a beat continued talking up a storm about who had witnessed to her, who she had witnessed to, and who might witness to whomever in the future, while we witnessed her sucking down one of many drink specials of the day (at $7.50 a pop I hope they were special!).

 

Trying to keep Wilbur from jumping off the sea wall.

 

Outside of O'Leary's, that's our mooring field behind me.

 

We walked back to the dinghy with Wilbur sniffing and marking the whole way and then headed on out to our boat. Everything went well, the dinghy motor only stalled once, and then we were there. Wilbur always has to be the first one off and I've quit fighting him over this and out he jumped to get on board but the dinghy bounced on a wave and one of his front feet slipped. He caught himself and then as he tried to jump the rest of the way his back feet missed and Wham! he was in the water. We had him clipped to his leash at his collar so the poor thing spun around by his neck as he frantically pawed and flailed at the water trying to get back into the dinghy. Somehow between the two of us we dragged him back on and then he didn't waste any time hustling onto the boat where he shook salt water all over the place.

 

Yet one more afternoon storm started to work it's way through but we were lucky this time. The storm skirted our mooring field and as we sat in the cockpit enjoying the cool breezes it brought, we watched a rainbow off in the distance as it struggled to form. First we saw one one end of it start off to the east and it was surprisingly intense, and then way off to the west we saw the other end try to take shape. It was huge. Then way up in the sky the middle part got going and it was also very intense. By the time it was fully formed it had faded quite a bit but rainbows are always exciting to see.

Wilbur, however, after his exhausting day wanted nothing to do with all this nonsense and had long since gone off to bed. Wilbur is truly the most mature being on the Knotty Cat and on most nights he heaves a huge sigh before shooting us his most disgusted look before thumping and bumping his way down into our berth.

Hours after the rainbow faded away we finally joined Wilbur who was snoring heavily in our berth. We'd just climbed in when I asked why everything seemed so wet because smack dab in the middle of our bed (and right below the open hatch) the sheet had a huge wet circle, and then I found my pillow was saturated. On came the lights and as Hans and I poked around and tried to figure out what happened (we were pretty sure it hadn't rained) I felt a third being between us. It was Wilbur, and in addition to our noses sniffing at the sheets, he was right there sniffing along with us. What was really strange was; Wilbur seemed just as perplexed as us and had none of that hang dog 'Dear God You Found Me Out' guilt complex going on. I finally tossed the pillow out into the cockpit, threw the sheet into the laundry basket, and called it a day.

Honestly, I think that poor dog wet the bed and I believe it happened once before. Wilbur would prefer if we don't dwell upon it.

Wilbur's favorite roost when he's tired; our pillows

 

Perhaps he was having dreams of the good old days on the hard when his mama brought him home soup bones

 

We finally turned around to come home and once again after getting into the gulf we had no wind and motored the entire way home. We managed to get back into our slip with no major trauma and with that our Shake Up Cruise was over.

Now that we're back our major concern will be getting our air conditioners installed and monitoring this season's hurricanes.

 

Posted with Blogsy