Day 187, Year 8: Windbird’s Trek to Cape Cod, Day 10
Date: Thursday, May 9, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day, Winds SW 5-10, Temp Upper 70’s F
Latitude: 39 08.086 N
Longitude: 076 14.777 W
Location: At the Public Free Dock in Rock Hall, Eastern Shore of Maryland
Captain’s Log for Thursday, May 9:
“Today was a long, slow motor up the Chesapeake Bay. But there were some breaks in the boredom. About an hour after raising anchor at Solomon’s the high water alarm went off. I ran the electric bilge pump and then saw that the packing gland was leaking more water than usual. It should drip every few seconds just to cool the cutlass bearing. Ours was more than dripping so I got out my wrenches and tightened it up. End of problem. A little later we decided to put out a fishing line. After all, there were dozens of fishing boats all around us, so there must be fish. While getting the fishing line out I remembered that I needed to clean the water maker filter by dragging it behind the boat. So I did that. And the thought ran through my mind that maybe we could catch a big fish on the filter?!! Sometime later – no fish yet – I hauled in the filter, installed it, and started the water maker. Lee and I had rebuilt it about a month ago and I was anxious to try it out. It worked like a charm. It seemed like more output than we are used to, but after about forty minutes of running it was producing potable water. I filled two jugs to use later for battery water and to pickle the water maker membranes when we lay it up for a while. Still later we unfurled the Yankee to get a boost from the 12 knot winds. It helped a little, but we had to keep motor-sailing to make it in the Rock Hall before dark. Still, it felt good to run with a sail up for a while.
As we approached Rock Hall we admitted defeat on the fishing attempt and reeled in the line. Rock Hall is a cute little community and we walked the docks for a bit and then stopped at a crab house for some ribs. Yes, ribs at a crab house doesn’t make much sense, but they smelled so good and they ended up tasting even better. We are now back on Windbird getting ready for tomorrow. New batteries should come late tomorrow morning and I have to get the old ones out before then. Once installed we will go take another look at the boat Lynda and Lee are interested in. If done in time, we will leave here and head to Chesapeake City. Or we might wait until Saturday to head there and wait for a weather window to make the last leg of our journey to Cape Cod. I am ready!”
I just talked to Mark and he fears that winds from N and W forecast for Monday and Tuesday, might delay the off-shore passage. They will continue watching the weather and make decisions accordingly. Back on Cape Cod, things are going well. Jed got home from his conference in Portugal late this afternoon and I just got a call from Heather saying the three-hour symposium on the Fukushima nuclear disaster that she was moderating this evening went great. Sam and Jonah both went to school today and Heather went to work, so Ollie and I spent the day together. His ear infection and cold are much better, but he’s still not a hundred per cent, so we kept him home instead of sending him to the day care. Sam is also much better, so the hope would be that we could enjoy a sick-free weekend. But just like the weather, that could change at any moment, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
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| 130509 Day 187 Passage to Cape Cod 8–Day 10, Rock Hall, MD |
