Blessing of the Fleet

The girls were in a wedding on Jekyll this weekend, so Wayne, Pepe and I headed on down to the condo early Friday in preparation for our annual Blessing of the Fleet weekend. The Howards made it down Friday night, and early Saturday morning we were off! Johnnie, Melanie, Breanna and Austin Harris met us at the Gould's dock and we had smooth sailing all the way to Darien. We got there just in time for the parade, made our rounds through the festival and the art in the park (they had a GREAT band playing in the park, by the way) before zipping through General's Cut over to Mudcat Charlie's for a little lunch. The David Baxter clan wasn't able to join us on the pilgrimidge this year due to the Onion Padgeant people not checking with us on dates, but couldn't be helped... LOL! But, David and Holly drove down at had lunch with us at least. Mudcat's was wonderful, as always, but it was bitter sweet having to leave Brother Dave and Holly J on the dock when we left... but, there's always next year guys!

On the way home, we stopped in at Sapelo to visit Da and Grandma for a few minutes before heading on back to Gould's Landing. Sure was nice to see them, and Michael, if even for just those few minutes, but I sure am glad we headed out when we did ~ The weather man had been predicting 3-5 foot seas in the afternoon. Well, I didn't measure them precisely, but I'm pretty sure we met and exceeded that prediction! Whew! What a trip! But, alls well that ends well!

And then... nearly had my heart ripped out. We had gone back to the dock to take down the curtains, and since Pepe had been cooped up by himself at the condo all day, I let him tag along. Now, the old fellow has been getting progressivly more and more blind, and my head was up my butt and I just didn't see him, but he walked straight off the end of the dock and into the water. Since his last attack, his back end doesn't swim real well, and the tide was ripping, pulling him right under the dock. Monica and I both reacted very quickly, me stripping my jacket & dropping my phone out of my pocket preparing to go in after him. And the next thing I knew we were both lying of the dock, hanging off the end, reaching and grabbing. Lord! Just as his little body, already under the floater, and his little head went under the last time, somehow, Monica managed to grab his front leg, and yank him up high enough for me to get a hold, and the two of us swished him up on the dock. Then we all had a nervous break-down. Poor Wayne, who had been in the boat, had no idea what was going on, nearly until it was over, but then had to sit down because his knees were shaking. Monica was just sitting on the end of the dock, and couldn't stop her hands from shaking. Me? Well, BASKET CASE! I wrapped him in my jacket, and just sat there for the longest time, rocking him and trying (unsuccessfully I might add) not to ball like a baby. OH MY GOSH! Poor dog must have feline in him somehow. I know he's been through at least 8 of his 9 lives ~ Love my Pepe!