Do You Believe It ? ? ? ? ? ?

SHIP'S LOG:

I joined several others is morning in completing the clean up of the mess left behind by IRENE. There might have been a dozen people who worked very hard but it was sad that there were actually so few. It didn't help that a equal number of individuals walked right down the dock on their way to their boats complaining that the mess should have been cleaned up already. The expressors of such comments were lucky no one took violent offense at their statements and expressed themselves with their shovels and rakes.

The effort made by those who came and worked was well rewarded as the beach was completely clear in about 4 hours and we had beer and donuts as a reward. Yes, I know . . . beer and donuts. Rum and donuts or beer and pizza would have made more sense but it wasn't I who went out and did the buying and one has to make use of what one has.

The talked around the tables on the porch following the cleaning of the beach and the consuming of the beer and donuts had to do with KATIA. Katia is a new hurricane that is currently in the Atlantic off the Southeastern US coast but which seems to be heading right toward North Carolina south of Cape Hatteras and the outer banks. It is entirely possible that she will do a bounce and follow the same track as IRENE and won't that be fun! The forecasters are currently being really, really careful with their predictions and are looking no farther forward than Wednesday(at least the most daring) so there is no way of knowing whether she may simply slide into North Carolina and die, or bounce up the coast, or hit and bounce back off into the Atlantic, or simply run out of gas completely. The thought of the having to strip the boat again and go through all those preparations gives me hyper-acidity! But one must do what one must do. Still, I am praying she heads out of town!