Celebrating Obama!

Day 49- Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Today Obama will be inaugurated—yay! Happy day! We are listening to satellite radio’s NPR morning talk about all the challenges ahead for the new administration. There is a lot to think about.
However, those of us off in distant islands are struggling with other challenges: gale force winds of 40 knots and choppy waters here in paradise. We understand that it may be snowing in Washington, DC for the Inaugural Ceremony, but we are mostly focused on how well our anchor is set. Thanks to John’s insistence, we have a super strong anchor and lots of feet of anchor chain. One of our first upgrades for Caribbean Soul was to buy a better & bigger anchor. “You know you’ve got the right anchor,” Capt. John says, “when folks comment that you may have an anchor too large for your boat!”
We all have great hopes for Obama and his administration, but last night our 44 lb. Rocna anchor gripped the muddy bottom of Marsh Harbor while the water got choppy and the winds howled. Yay! Let’s hear it for the Rocna and John’s good sailing sense! But it must be mentioned that just “anchoring” our country with a new president does not take care of all the challenges any more that just securing your own boat in the storm. There are about 40 boats (mostly sail boats) anchored here so it is crowded and worrisome when the winds blow and all of them start jumping around. John was awake most of the night checking on our holding and our proximity to neighboring boats. Finally, he turned on the VHF figuring that if boats got out of control in the harbor someone would sound a warning on Channel 16. I guess this is pretty simple compared to what will have to be done to weather the global economic, environmental, etc. storms for our newly inaugurated president.
However, when the sun came up in our part of the world, no boats had crashed together and we are still safe in Marsh Harbor. The Cruisers Net this morning reported that a boat broke loose in Hope Town Harbor last night, so we don’t take our good fortune for granted.
For the rest of today, we will try to wrap our thoughts around the challenges facing our new president and his administration. John—of course—helps me write these blogs, but today’s entry is bringing lots of eye-rolling on his part.
I—however—am sticking to my tacky little metaphor!