Reminders

When we left Tampa something happened along the way that we cannot stop thinking about.  In the midst of all the good feelings about the success of Bear’s surgery we stopped for fuel.  When we came up the ramp to the freeway, we found ourselves in the middle of a funeral procession.  It was a special one because the honoree’s casket was draped in our Flag.  The procession was led, followed and flanked by the old vets on motorcycles that escort the fallen home.  We extracted ourselves from the procession and proceeded slowly past it showing as much respect as one can on a freeway.  The salute was returned.   We will always remember that scene with profound gratitude for Sgt. Paul Cuzzupa II (known in his unit at Care Bear), Army Medic who paid the ultimate price on August 8, 2010 in Afghanistan. 

The huge sailboat docked near us yesterday was the Aime  Sea.  Turns out that she is a charter boat of some 115 feet in length and displaces some 135 tons.  What a beauty.  According to her website, the going fee for chartering her is over  43,000 Euro  per week.  If you are thinking about a luxury cruise, why not just go for it?  ---- or not. 

A regatta is planned for this weekend by the locals.  It is similar to Harvest Moon where the 25 boats race to a party in Savannah.   They started in a raging thunderstorm and all are into the event with some seriousness.  We are tied here at the dock and our sister boat Pied a Mier is in the race.  Methinks tis better to be here.   Weather threatened to postpone or cancel the event but it was moving away so the race was on.  The hard part of it is the run up the Savannah River some 13 miles from the sea buoy.  It would be like finishing the Harvest Moon at City Marina in Corpus.