April 25, Day 304 – Starks Landing to Butchers Bend

This morning we had one of our favorite breakfasts – Karen’s homemade empanadas. We have carefully rationed them so as to be able to have them periodically throughout our Great Loop trip. When we left home last June, Karen gave us several packages which we stretched out to last until we went home for Christmas. Then, she gave us another big batch which we put in our luggage when we flew from Maryland back to Florida. We took the last package out of the freezer and had a couple today and will savor the few remaining ones during the next week. Thanks again Karen (and Jimmy, too). It felt like a little slice of home whenever we’d have them.

After breakfast, Gerry dove into the bilge and changed the generator oil and filter and topped off the batteries. Linda worked on the blog update. We’ve have poor cell reception the past several days and our MiFi has not been able to connect. We seemed to have better connectivity this morning, so Linda updated the blog before she forgot what in the heck we’d been doing.

Around 1:30 we decided we’d head a little farther south – to one of the next oxbows. We thought the best one looked like Butchers Bend. There were strong wind, lightning and rain warnings for the area, along with a tornado warning. Butchers Bend looked like it would be quite protected and with plenty of swing room. We raised the anchor and were on our way by 2:00. We arrived by 3:30 as we only had a short distance to go. We dropped the anchor and settled in. There was a lot of traffic on the river this afternoon, many boats with crazy drivers – everyone out for their last few hours of fun before returning to work tomorrow. We were glad to be at anchor in a protected area.

Around 5:00 we went over to Second Star for happy hour – so far we’d seen none of the predicted bad weather. However, by 6:30 the sky looked quite threatening and the first raindrops fell. We hurried back to Monk’s Vineyard in the dinghy just as the rain hit in earnest. WOW – what a storm – rain, lightning and heavy wind. We think this is the worst storm we’ve had on the Loop. We put on raingear, turned the engine on and went up to the flybridge. We wanted to be able to maneuver in case the anchor didn’t hold. Thankfully, the anchor held just fine. After about an hour the wind died down. However, the pounding rain and incessant lightning continued until 3 or 4:00 in the morning. What a night!!!

This is a restaurant/bar/marina we passed on our way to the next anchorage. It was quite the happenin' place on a Sunday afternoon.

We passed by the entrance to Emanuel Bend oxbow

Next up was Butchers Bend. Here we're about to make the turn into the oxbow.

It was a pretty area, lined with cypress trees

A shot of Second Star just as the rain started. Here's Michael "buttoning down the hatches". It was around 6:30 but you can see how dark it had become.