The Power of Yes

Just a couple of things to add to Ean's update.  I'd like to offer a public apology and thank you to René and Steve, former owners of Joy, who have been so patient with us.  They are keeping track of our progress (or lack thereof), and they are surely worried that we’re going to kill their boat.  But we continue to learn from them.  It was René who suggested that if we were stocking up on meat, we should ask the butcher to FREEZE the meat for us, so we don’t tax our reefer.  At the Piggly Wiggly from Port Royal, SC, we put her advice into action.  Now, first, I have to admit that we, as urban dwellers, have always viewed the presence of a Piggly Wiggly as a sign of the end of civilization.  But shame on us.  Paul from Piggly Wiggly was AWESOME.  He agreed to freeze the meat, introduced us to his accommodating manager, and picked out the best cuts of meat to put into our box o’ meat.  It is SO easy to say NO, and often times, people enjoy exercising the power of NO.  Paul could have easily said, “No, sorry, we can’t do that.”  But the people who use their power to say YES are so inspirational to me.  Paul said, “This is what we do at the Piggly Wiggly.  It’s all about customer service.”  How cool is that?  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Paul.  Paul is why life is worth living. 

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE Port Royal Landing Marina.  They collected all our important mail for us, and Ross kidded me about my cyber-shopping (amazon.com – it’s called PROVISIONING, not shopping).  We did laundry for only a dollar a load – wow! – and used the marina’s courtesy car (TRUCK, actually) to go grocery shopping – oops, I mean PROVISIONING.  Rion made sure we got the oil filters we needed, and Tony and Adam helped us with lines and refueling and pumping out, and everyone was SO friendly.  It was all about the YES.  People have been good to us. 

Rev, we drank the wine you bought for us during our boat-renaming ceremony.  Ean SAYS he is an atheist, but apparently he is more of an AGNOSTIC, because HE was the one who insisted we do the whole ceremony - and just before we're out to Neptune's domain.  We offered and committed SHIRAZ and her memories to the deep and flung wine and champagne everywhere to honor the gods and curry favor for JOY.

And now we have our big YES from Chris Parker.  We are SO excited and so ready.  Can't decide what will be the best thing about scooting out Port Royal Sound in the morning:

1. We get off the ICW.  Dang, we're sick of the ICW.
2. We're heading for the Bahamas, where the Tipsy Turtles await.
3. We finally get to do some SAILING - 
4. Mother mother ocean, we have heard you call....