In HIS Hands

First of all, thank you all for your prayers!  Hurricane Matthew has passed and the news on TV will reveal to you all the horrible things left in his wake, but not me.  I will show you GOD’s amazing faithfulness in our lives and to HIM will I give all the thanks and praise.

Last Wednesday, we began our preparations for the boat.  We took down all the isinglass (clear boat vinyl windows) at the top and on the back deck of the boat…my favorite room! We rolled up both carpets, taped all cabinets and lockers closed, removed all the cushions and stuff, and lashed the furniture to the boat.  The results:

Captain Rick, with the help of some wise and experienced boat captains here, created fender boards to give our boat better protection from the pilings.

The big boys were a blessing to many who store their boats here and living elsewhere, were unable to prepare their boats.

Thursday morning, Rick and the boys dropped anchors in the channel on the other side so as the tide rose (expected 3-10 feet) it would pull our boat into the channel and away form the tops of the pilings.

After all was safe and secure inside the boat, the kids and I evacuated to the grandparents home in Lake City, along with many other like minded people! 🙂

Rick and Richard, our first mate, stayed to add cut up fire hose to the lines to protect them from chaffing

and to wait for some wind to make sure the lines were steadfast. They joined us that night. This picture, sent to us while gone, is of the ICW and our boat and marina is to the far right.

Several of the men stayed at the marina or very nearby to keep a watch on everything and continue to give us updates via text messages.  The last one was very encouraging!

We returned yesterday to a boat without a scratch

…the piling was a little worse for the wear, but that was it!

Coming into Palm Coast we saw a lot of trees that had fallen, but had already been cut and cleared.  So much cleanup had already taken place that we had no trouble getting back.

I love seeing “God’s fingerprints” in our lives and before the hurricane arrived, Rick moved our boat out of slip 505 to the outer side of the main dock.

All slips have a finger dock on one side (notice 2 sets of cleats and wooden piling at the end of the dock) andand pilings on the other.  A new boat owner next to our slip didn’t tie his lines just right and his boat was pushed by the wind into our slip.  With the water high, his boat was above the fixed (not floating) docks and 

came down upon the concrete finger dock and broke the end half off.

Had we left our boat there, we would have received a pounding. Thanks be to GOD!

Katherine, a blossoming artist, created one of my favorite pieces months ago.  An amazing sign language student, she drew the sign for “boat” and embellished it for a regatta in the Bahamas.  I, and many others, see the hands of the One who holds us perfectly.

We are “home,”

the skies are blue, the water is calm, the sun is setting

and tomorrow we will give HIM thanks… again!

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Psalm 107:1