Silouhette

I scanned the shoreline, desperately looking for a small head to poke out of a cockpit somewhere.  Nothing.  Still, I didn't give up.  I grabbed the binoculars, and searched again, but nothing.  I sighed.  Back to watching the boring old man in the boat next door.  All I'd seen him do was sit and eat some chips off the platter next to him.  Oh, and also, the dogs a few boats over were pacing back and forth.  Again.  I like to spy on people, but, I like it most when there is action.  That was the problem.  There was no action here.  None.

                

I swept my eyes over the scene one more time.  Luckily, a head poked out of a cockpit in the marina across the way.  My heart sank.  It was a man with a bucket and a scrub brush.  Poo, I thought. No kids. At least he was entertaining.  He washed the deck and the sails, managing to get himself soaked in the process.  He yelled something I couldn't make out.  A woman appeared with two trash bags slung over her shoulder and walked over to a dumpster.

I studied the name of the boat. It was in very small print, and even with the binoculars, it was hard to read.  It definitely started with an S... followed by ILH... then maybe an... O?  Then it clicked. Silhouette.  It was definitely Silhouette, now that I looked closer.  I was so distracted with the name, that I didn't notice two smaller forms making their way across the slippery deck.  When I looked up, I gasped,"KIDS!" I squealed with delight, "AGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"  Just then, Mom peeked up through the gangway with a worried expression on her face. "You OK?" she asked, drying her hands on a dish towel. "Kids" I repeated, "Over there." I pointed to the large boat in the marina.  It looked a bit bigger than Kiawah.  It was a Beneteau.  My dad always says they're good boats.  I'd only been on one once.  I liked the design on the inside.  Nice and comfortable.  "Can we go over to say hi? Please?" I asked. "Sure, we'll stop over on our way into town," Mom answered.

                

Now is a good time to stop and tell you more details.  We had just come from Morehead city, North Carolina, and were anchored  in Beaufort, N.C.  Beaufort is a nice town that is very friendly to boaters, but, as we decided in the time that we were there, it needed another grocery store closer to the dinghy dock.  The nearest one was well over a mile out of town.  We all were fine with walking there, but walking back with pounds of food on our backs and in our hands wasn't easy. Even with a scooter.

And so, on our way into town, we pulled up next to the Silhouette to say hi. It looked like the family was getting ready to go into town as well.  "Hello!  My kids thought they saw some other kids over here," my dad said. "This is Riley and Wren."  "Hi!  How nice to meet you! This is Robyn and Kerry," said the mom.  The two kids looked almost identical. The only difference was their clothes and the color of their glasses.  They sounded British, but later we found out that their parents came from South Africa. The accents are very similar.  "Hello! I'm Robyn and this is Kerry," said the girl with the purple glasses. Right then I made a mental note.  Robyn has purple glasses and Kerry has red.  After hanging out with them for a few days, we got the hang of the names.  Their parents were Pauline and Peter, who were both very nice.  

The next day we had no plans and decided to go get groceries.  Next we stopped at a café and got internet. Wren and I got bored and went with mom to the hundreds of antique shops in the area.  We saw Robyn and Kerry and arranged to meet that night at a cafe before supper.  We got our own table and we played games and did origami. While the adults were still talking, we went back to Silhouette, who was tied up at the marina, and drew. That night, we said goodbye and arranged to meet the next day. 

These two kids were my dream!  They were nice and polite, loved to read, knew how to sail, were very entertaining, never made you feel bad, were artistically talented, could make the best out of any situation, and had the same tastes as me (not to mention an impressive New York accent, Robyn J).  

The next day, we didn’t see Silhouette at all. We were tied up with schoolwork and boat chores, plus, it was a nasty day anyway.

The day after was better and we met at the Rachel Carson Preserve to hike and see the wild horses that roamed the delicate dunes.  It was a blast!  We saw two horses, millions of fiddler crabs, got stuck in thick black mud and worried about the stains that it would leave on our sneakers.  We went digging for quahogs (similar to clams), found pieces of purple wampum (the purple part of the quahog shell that Native Americans used to trade and make beautiful jewelry out of), and ate jellybeans while brainstorming names for imaginary horses we would see in our future. “If we see a black horse, then we should name it Night Mare,” I suggested, popping a green jellybean in my mouth. “Ooo! I like that name, but only if the horse is a girl,” Robyn said. “Right.  And if we see a white mare, we should name it sugar,” Kerry said. “If the mare has a foal, then it should be named Jellybean!” Wren said.  Some other names included Madame Zeroni and Stanley (from the book Holes, which both girls had read). 

We had so much fun!

When we got back to the beach (yes, a sandy one!) where we left our dinghy, a man in a little sailing dinghy named Sea Raven called out to us. "Hey, could you give me a hand?"  He was clearly having trouble sailing the little thing.  So mom, dad, Kerry, and I hopped in the dinghy and went to help out. Kerry and I ended up in Sea Raven with my dad.  I was really glad Kerry and I got to go along.  It was awesome!  We all had a great time even though we ran over several buoys, ran aground twice, snapped an oar, ripped the sail, crashed into a bunch of boats tied up to a dock (Kerry's fault not mine) and narrowly avoided several other boat crashes.  It was really fun and we learned panicking doesn't make the situation better...

We docked Sea Raven and mom came to pick up Kerry, dad and me.  Robyn and Wren were back on Kiawah, and Kerry and I joined in. We drew and talked about random stuff.  After two minutes I learned that Kerry and Robin were extraordinary artists. Robyn is a master at drawing bearded unicorns, and Kerry could draw stunning fashions.  I don't know how, but Robyn and Kerry ended up staying for dinner!  Pork chops, salted potatoes and salad. Yum!  After a delicious dessert of strawberry shortcake, we decided to play a joke on their parents, Pauline and Peter.  Robin and Kerry switched clothes and glasses before going back to Silhouette.  It only took about 10 seconds of Robin and Kerry explaining their day for their parents to figure it out, but I couldn't tell the difference.

Finally it was time to say goodbye.  I was sad because we might not see each other again.  I could only hope we would be moving to the same place the next day. Even if we didn't see each other again I knew that a friendship like that could never end.
Miss and love you all,

Ri

     (P.S. For pictures, look at the main blog page entitled: Beaufort, NC, sorry!)