I think Henry enjoys sitting in the boat wiggling the tiller back and forth more than he likes the beach. Another favorite pastime is climbing forward and getting the excess anchor and dock line all tangled together around the belaying pins on the mast partner.

He did have a great time playing in the water though. He’s pretty fearless which makes it difficult to do anything but keep an eye on him. The first time we introduced him to water at a lake he just started walking out and would have kept on going if we didn’t stop him once the water was up to his torso.

Around midday I noticed a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk doing laps in the Bay off the side of Gwynn’s Island. After a while it started doing long back and forth runs up past Stingray Point. I assumed they were looking for someone, or possibly doing a training exercise.

Here’s the track from a flight tracker. The sandbar we’re at is between the two most southerly runs.

Eventually I learned someone found a floating life jacket and the helicopter came all the way up from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It’s both insane and comforting to know the Coast Guard will spend thousands of dollars an hour flying around just to investigate a life jacket that had in all likelihood been blown out of a boat.

Heading back after a long day. Every crab pot buoy we passed Henry would point and was sure it was a “baaaallll!”