IF OR WHEN?

Why do the waiting days drag by so slowly? As we await word on whether we have sold the wine shop, I notice an ever so slight change in our words.

At first we expressed no acknowledgement that we might be leaving soon.

"If we leave sometime this summer..."

Tonight I noticed a "when" instead of "if."

"Where should we go when we leave?"

We were sitting in the cockpit, entertaining the possibility of sailing soon, using the 'when' and 'where' words.

We spoke of Solomons Island on the western shore of the Chesapeake where we laid over one too-short night on the trip south. It was a place we thought we'd like to revisit .... sometime.

"But I want to anchor out somewhere for the first few weeks. I didn't see any anchorage space, did you?" I said.

Conversation meandered on through Ocracoke and Oriental and St. Michael's.

"Is that an Island Packet?" Chip asked.

In the Chesapeake, it is not unusual to see other boats like ours, but here on Roanoke Island, we don't spot them too often. Sure enough an Island Packet 38 passed quietly into the marina.

Almost an hour later, I said, "Isn't that an Island Packet!?!?"

Another one.

We were in the dockmaster's office when they both came to check in. No, they were not travelling together. No, they didn't know each other.

Where were they from? Both of them?

Turns out, there is good anchorage space in Solomons, along with new friends and a car we can use if we need it, or should I say when we need it?