Day 126, Year 11: Little River, SC to Ashburn, VA (in a car)
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy Day
Location: At Home with Kevin and Claire, Janelia Farm, Ashburn, VA

Today we had a wonderfully uneventful road trip from Little River to Janelia Farm in Ashburn, Virginia. And boy was it windy. Mark sat in the back seat while Kevin and I drove and Mark says it was so rough in the back that he could understand how people get car sick. I guess our little Honda Fit is too lightweight for the gusty winds we had today. But other than a sore back from the rough ride, Mark is fine. I drove to Richmond, Virginia while Kevin worked as he had a couple of long conference calls. Mark slept and played solitaire on his phone. We arrived at Janelia Farm in the late afternoon and then went out to dinner and had great Taiwanese food. It was wonderful to see Claire again and we talked the evening away.

A big hug across the miles to all of you who have written emails of support to us over the past few days. We know the weather forecasts for Wednesday were scary. We cut it closer than we had planned due to our slow start the first day out. If we had been able to go outside from Palm Beach, we would have arrived in Little River on Monday. But the seas were rougher outside than we wanted to endure, thus we stayed in the waterway and didn’t go outside until noon on Saturday. We always had the fallback of coming into Charleston, but if we had done that I think we would just be leaving there this morning. Yesterday was too rough even for the inland waterway. So we felt blessed that we were able to make into Little River when we did. Apologies for any worry we caused.

Yesterday we contacted a diesel engine repair guy about our overheating issue and he actually came to the boat to look at the engine on that short notice. He won’t be able to really check things out for a couple of weeks, but at least we met him and went over the problem. Before we called anyone I had said to Kevin and Mark that I really didn’t want anyone working on the engine except Dave Laux. He is the engine genius that installed our Yanmar engine in November of 2005. In the ten and half years since then, the engine has run perfectly until recently. I have heard so many horror stories of people getting engines worked on by well meaning, but incompetent repairmen, that I was really hesitant to call anyone but Dave. But Mark pointed out that Dave is long way away and just might not be interested in our Yanmar anymore. But who do you think we got an email from this morning? You got it. It was Dave Laux with some suggestions about the overheating. He must still be reading our logs after all these years and it appears he is still interested in our Yanmar! If we can get the engine running good enough for me to start north in May, I’m tempted to find a way to stop in the Chesapeake Bay and have Dave take a look. That is, if he is willing to do it. The story of how we met Dave Laux is quite interesting. When our transmission out the day we left Quissett Harbor in 2005, we were forced into the Delaware Bay and found our way up a tiny canal to the town of Lewes. We tied up to the city dock on a weekend and found it to be quite a busy little place. Here’s the story as written in my log:

“People started coming down the dock to check out the new boat in town. People also fish from the dock and a couple of guys who had been fishing stopped to say hello. I told them our sad v-drive transmission story and one of the guys told me his favorite transmission story. He is a commercial fisherman and has a 43-foot aluminum boat built by a local guy. Not long after it was built, he was hauling in traps and got the line wrapped around the prop. But he didn’t know that. After pulling up the traps, he put the boat in gear and revved the engine. The strain on the transmission caused the gears to actually blow out the side of the gear box. He called the guy who had built the boat and before the end of the day, he had repaired the gear box and was back in business. He suggested we call this guy to see if he could help us. So we did. An hour and a half later, David Laux and his wife arrived. He came with a stethoscope and asked me to start the engine and put it in gear while he listened.” The rest is history. With Dave’s encouragement we decided to repair the old engine/transmission and eventually sell it. We bought a new Yanmar and Dave installed it with Mark and I working side by side with him at his insistence. He wanted us to experience the entire process. When we received his email this morning, I felt it was another serendipitous experience, just like us finding him in the first place by talking to the fisherman on the Lewes dock. Dave, it is so reassuring to know that you are still with us.

It was hard leaving Windbird this morning. As I walked down the dock, I noticed Mark wasn’t with me. I looked back and he was just staring at the boat. When he finally caught up with me, I asked what he was doing. He said he was just saying goodbye to Windbird. I couldn’t help but shed a few tears, but hopefully we will be back together with our beloved Windbird by late spring. Until then, we know she is in good hands at Lightkeepers.

Day 125, Year 11: We Made It
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Weather: Mix of Sun, Clouds, Rain, Wind, and Tornado Watches
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC (arrived 11:28 pm last night)
Total Miles Traveled from West Palm Beach, FL: 508 nautical miles

We made it here to Lightkeeper’s Marina before midnight last night, and how happy we were to tie up to the dock. We ate dinner right after sunset and then had about two hours to go to get to the Little River inlet. All three of us just sat in the cockpit trying to figure out how to spend those hours. About that time, we noticed that fog was rolling in. So I made it my job to go downstairs to turn on the radar and watch for boat traffic. But the fog also made us all nervous about going in the Little River inlet and then making our way down the Intracoastal to Lightkeepers. Between watching the radar, familiarizing ourselves with the entry path on the chart, and thinking about all the jobs we would have to do once we were inside, the two hours we had to go disappeared quickly and so did most of the fog. By the time we got to the inlet, it was hazy, but not totally foggy, and the moon was shedding a lot of light down on us. Whew! Mark’s job was to stay in the cockpit to navigate the boat. My job was to stand on the foredeck with a spot light in order to find and light up the next mark for Mark. It was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had to scan the waters looking for the reflective tape on the markers and we would be almost on the mark before I could see anything. Kevin’s job was to run back and forth between me and Mark relaying messages telling Mark which way to turn. But Kevin was often quicker than me at spotting the marks, so he ended up doing his job and part of mine . . . for which I was most grateful. But with our electronic track, teamwork, moonlight, and a lot of luck, we made it all the way to our slip at Lightkeepers with no problems. Since there was no one waiting on the dock to take our lines, Kevin got the honors of jumping onto the dock to receive the lines. Sure glad it was him and not me that got that honor! I think we all breathed a huge sigh of relief once those lines secured Windbird to the dock. I wouldn’t want to repeat this experience often, but if I did have to, I’d want to do with this same crew. We make a great team.

Today Mark and Kevin had to do some work. Kevin had a very long conference call and Mark needed to find a few more prospects for his job search. I ran back and for the between the boat and the office where there is a washer and dryer. The machine is small and it took five loads to get all of our laundry done. And between loads, I worked at getting those things we need to take with us packed up. And all of this had to be done with an eye on the weather. Schools here were closed today because of the threat of very high winds, rain, hail, and tornadoes. Thankfully we didn’t get winds any higher than 30 knots and the periods of rain were short—and most thankfully, there was neither hail nor tornadoes here in Little River. But with all the threats, we sure were glad we had made the decision to come all the way into the marina last night.

Tomorrow morning we will drive to Janelia Farm in Virginia to deliver Kevin home. We’ll spend the night there and drive on to Nyack, New York on Friday to spend the night with our friends Ed and Lynne. We’ll then arrive on Cape Cod on Saturday afternoon. We’re anxious to get there to see the Goldstones and then to head on north to Lowell, Massachusetts, where we will be living temporarily. It was only a week ago tomorrow that we learned that we needed to get Mark back to Boston. And we are just thankful that the weather held for us and that we were able to get Windbird back to Little River. She will be happy here in our absence.

Day 124, Year 11: Day Five, Passage to Little River—It’s a Delivery
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Weather: Overcast, Early AM Rain, Hi 60’s, Low 50’s, Wind NE 10, Seas 2-3 ft
Latitude: 33 34.819 N
Longitude: 078 49.305 W
Location: Motor Sailing Off the SC Coast Near Myrtle Beach
Total Miles Traveled: 481 nautical miles (5:00 pm)

We’re not there yet, but we are motor sailing along Myrtle Beach and should arrive at the Little River inlet by 10 pm tonight. We are not going to let the dark night deter us. We are going to carefully follow our previous tracks and hope to find our way to the gas dock just before we get to Lightkeepers Marina, or if the conditions are right, we might go all the way into the slip at the marina. We are making it in just in time as the weather is supposed to turn nasty in the morning, maybe as early as sunrise. It has not been beautiful today, but the seas remained fairly calm and 10-12 knots of wind stayed with us. For most of the day we had all sails up and were doing 6-7 knots on a beam reach. But mid-afternoon the wind turned to the NE and is right on the nose. I have been bemoaning the fact that we have had some great ‘sails’ but only with the assist of the engine. That is when Kevin reminds me that this is a delivery and we had only five days to get here. In that case, you do what you can to go as fast as you can and Kevin really helped with that. These last two days he has transformed from Wonder Boy to Speedo Man. He constantly tweaked the sails to get every bit of speed out of them possible. If we had been able to continue the roll we were on yesterday, we could have made it in before dark tonight. But during the night, we had adverse current and NE wind right on the nose. So we were lucky to go even 4 knots at times. But when the wind switched to the SE this morning it allowed us to sail on a beam reach most of the day. So no complaints. It was a small miracle that we got this weather window at all just when we needed it.

So either tonight or in the morning, we will arrive at Lightkeepers Marina. The captain is voting to go into the marina. It will be at least 11 pm when we arrive there, but hopefully by midnight we will be tied to a dock. Tomorrow we will spend the day packing the car with things we will need until we can sail the boat north later in the spring. Then on Thursday morning, we head north to Cape Cod with a stop in Ashburn, Virginia, to drop Kevin off and visit with Claire. Depending on timing, we might even get to stop in Nyack to see Ed and Lynne. But by the weekend, we will on Cape Cod visiting with Heather, Jed, and the Goldpebbles. Life is good.

160223 Day 124 Passage to LR–All Sails Flying

Day 123, Year 11: Day Four, Passage to Little River—Sail Changes
Date: Monday, February 22, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Hi 70’s, Low 50’s, Wind S 8-10, Seas 1-2 ft
Latitude: 32 03.067 N
Longitude: 080 34.112 W
Location: Motor Sailing Along GA Coast—Just N of Savannah
Total Miles Traveled: 351 nautical miles (4:30 pm)

Today was all about sail changes to try and give us the fastest speed possible. We made good time overnight and Little River is within reach tomorrow night (Tuesday), but either after dark or in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. We tried everything to boost the speed today, but 5.8 to 6.0 knots is the best we can do with 10 knots of wind directly behind us and an engine that heats up if we push it beyond 2200 RPMs. We started the morning by putting out the spinnaker, with the spinnaker and main on the same side. Then we tried wing and wing with the spinnaker poled out to one side and the main vanged out to the other side. The changes went on and on. We have ended up with all sails flying but we get a fair amount of sail slapping as the seas are no longer like a lake. The swell is just 1-2 feet, but that’s enough to roll us a bit when the wind dips below 10 knots and the rolling slows us down. It looks like we will lose the wind altogether tonight, so unless we get a boost from the current, we will slow down quite a bit. If that is the case, it will probably be the middle of the night when we reach the Little River inlet, but we have a good track to follow and we’ll use our spotlight to locate the markers. There is a fuel dock just before Lightkeepers Marina and we are thinking we might just tie to that until daylight and then enter the marina. Of course, if we check the weather in the morning and there is a big change, our plan to go inside at Charleston might be back on the docket. As always, the weather rules.

160222 Day 123 Passage to LR–Spinnaker Sail

Day 122, Year 11: Day Three, Passage to Little River—Lovely Day
Date: Sunday, February 21, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Hi 70’s, Low 50’s, Wind ENE 8-10, Seas Calm
Latitude: 29 57.914 N
Longitude: 081 12.258 W
Location: Motor Sailing Along Florida’s E Coast—Just N of St. Augustine
Total Miles Traveled: 215 nautical miles (5:30 pm)

What a lovely day! My midnight shift was moonlit and uneventful. How wonderful! Kevin was on watch from 1:30 to 4:30 pm, letting Mark sleep through the night. Another wonderful thing. When I came on watch at 4:30 pm the almost full moon was low in the sky and beautiful. When it set, you could start to see light on the horizon in anticipation of sunrise. It was just beautiful. We were still essentially motoring and continued that way until noon. Mark was down napping and I had just come up from my morning nap. Kevin had been waiting for a someone to get up and help him put out the headsail. We had 8-10 knots right on the beam and putting out the headsail gave us at least an extra knot of speed. So all afternoon, and now continuing into the evening, we are actually motor sailing over 6 knots. We have been moving along at about 6.8 knots all afternoon, but as the sun is setting, the wind is moving further behind us and we are losing a bit of our speed. But it has been a lovely afternoon.

The only things we have seen have been fishing boats and birds. That gannets litter the water here and there and I never tire of seeing them. What I don’t like to see littering the water is Mylar balloons. We saw some yesterday and again today. All of us need to resist the desire to give these balloons in celebration of special holidays. It seems too many of them end up escaping and landing in the ocean.

We doubt that we can keep up our current speed, but even going a knot slower, we are hopeful that we might be able to go all the way to Little River, arriving early in the AM on Wednesday. If we can do that, we just might get in before the weather gets too bad. We have a chance of showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday, but it gets windier and stormier on Wednesday. So one way or another, we will be inside by early Wednesday morning.

160221 Day 122 Passage to LR–Moon, Sunrise, Ocean Litter, Motor Sailing

Day 121, Year 11: Day Two, Passage to Little River—Water Pirates
Date: Saturday, February 20, 2016
Weather: Overcast, Hi 70’s, Low 50’s, Wind Variable 5, Seas 3-5
Latitude: 27 52.715 N
Longitude: 080 22.037 W
Location: Motoring Along Florida’s E Coast–Off Sebastian Inlet
Total Miles Traveled: 79 nautical miles (5:30 pm)

We were on a roll this morning. Kevin was in the water by 7:45 am to check out the prop. He quickly came back up and reported that growth on the prop was not our problem. It was actually pretty clean, so the overheating issue is probably a problem with a heat exchanger. Checking that out will have to happen later. For now we’ll just not push the RPMs and hope that we will be fine. As soon as Wonder Boy (new name replacing Kevin’s ‘angel’ status) was out of the water, he and Mark were in the dinghy and headed to shore to get water. They were so fast that I still hadn’t had a chance to eat all of my granola. They explained that they were able to go right into the marina into an empty slip and get water before anyone knew they were there. Kevin was singing a little ditty about being a water pirate. Pirates or not, I was most grateful for the water. Our water jerry jugs were purchased in St. Helena and hold 25 litres and hold almost 7 gallons when absolutely full (versus US jugs that hold 5 gallons). They put the 14 gallons of water in the empty port tank and poured the 3 gallons they brought back in a bucket in our compromised starboard tank. This is the water tank that Mark mistakenly poured a small amount of diesel fuel in last spring before realizing his mistake. We have cleaned it and cleaned it, but have been afraid to use it for anything but washing dishes. We decided last night that we were going to have to change our minds and use it in this situation. But with good water in the port tank, we could now go back to using this one for just washing dishes. The guys went back for more water. This time they returned with two five gallon buckets (my idea) and the two jerry jugs. Mark was getting ready to put the jerry jug water in the port tank when Kevin suggested that we just leave it in the jugs on deck in case of another water emergency. As you will see, that was a brilliant idea. We put the buckets of water in the starboard tank and off we went. It took us three hours to get to the Ft. Pierce inlet and Mark felt like it was close enough to slack that we could go out. It wasn’t the roughest inlet we have ever negotiated but there were 10-12 foot standing waves and about three knots of current going with us. Obviously we didn’t wait long enough. But we were fine and by 12:30 pm we were through the inlet, had raised the main, and were headed north.

It was now time for me to head below to make lunch. I was once again enjoying running water when all of a sudden, there was once again no water. I wish you could have seen my face. Total disbelief doesn’t quite cover what I think I looked like. Mark came down to check things out, and sure enough, one of the hose clamps on the water hose Kevin installed last evening had popped off and once again we lost all of the water in the port tank. This is when we really appreciated Kevin’s genius in encouraging us to keep the two jerry jugs of water on deck and not in the tank. So we have an empty port water tank and a mostly full starboard tank that we are using. If there is any residual diesel in that tank, you certainly can’t see it or smell it. And since all of our drinking water goes through a Sea Gull filter, it will be fine.

So today had its moments of drama, but it was a much better day than yesterday. We will be passing Cape Canaveral before dark and nearing St. Augustine by tomorrow evening. Kevin says he doubts my weather forecasting skills as we certainly do not have the 15 knots of East wind that should have given us a wonderful beam reach sail this afternoon. It looks to me like the wind predicted for after midnight tonight came 12 hours early. And that means no wind for the next couple of days. But at this time of year, no wind is better than too much wind, so we’ll take what we have with no complaints. I will just note that with no wind, the 3-5 foot seas are causing us to have a roly poly ride, but we will endure.

160220 Day 121 Passage to LR–Water Pirates

Day 120, Year 11: Challenging Start
Date: Friday, February 19, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Hi Temp 70’s, Low 50’s, Wind E 5-20
Latitude: 27 14.681 N
Longitude: 080 13.037 W
Location: Anchored Off Jensen Beach, FL
Total Miles Traveled: 36.7 nautical miles

We made it out of West Palm Beach this morning, but the day brought us more than a few challenges. Due to all the issues we had, we could not make our destination of Ft. Pierce before dark. And that means our arrival time in Little River will be delayed by a day. One thing leads to another.

Challenge #1: Getting fuel in windy conditions.
We stopped at the Rybovich Marina and literally got blown onto the fuel dock as it was quite windy. The staff on the dock were friendly and helpful and when we were finished they actually towed us off the fuel dock until we could maneuver easily. They were afraid if they didn’t our stern would get scraped on the dock. Since there were many multi-million dollar yachts in this marina (one had belonged to Steve Jobs), I’m sure they helped partly because they didn’t want us to hit one of those. But then again, they just seemed like extremely nice people. So that challenge ended on a positive note and we have fuel.

Challenge #2: Engine Overheating
This is the same problem that plagued us on the trip south from Little River and is still not resolved. Kevin thinks that maybe growth on the prop is putting an extra load on the engine. We couldn’t do anything about that while underway today, but in the morning Kevin has volunteered to dive on the prop and give it a quick cleaning. Hopefully that will help the overheating issue. If not, we’ll just have to do what we did today and that is move a little more slowly than we would like.

Challenge #3: Bridges
Because we could not go as fast as usual, we wasted two hours of our day waiting on bridge openings. On the brighter side, Kevin got lots of ICW bridge experience.

Challenge #4: Shoaling
You always have to worry about shoaling in the Intracoastal, especially near inlets. Mark was down for a nap and Kevin and I were concerned about getting through two bridges that were less than a mile apart. We made it through the first bridge and we were in sight of the second bridge. While I was on the radio talking to the bridge tender, Kevin went aground. He was definitely in the middle of the channel where there should have been no problem. I told him to gun it while turning the wheel one way and then the other and he was successful in plowing on through. The bridge was still open, so I called to see if it would stay open for us. Luckily this was a patient bridge tender. By the way, Kevin was afraid this incident might tarnish his angel wings, but he more than earned his keep today with subsequent challenges.

Challenge #5: Mystery of the Missing Water
Sometime between second breakfast and lunch I went down to heat water to make more coffee. I turned on the filtered water faucet and nothing came out. I turned on the regular faucet and still nothing came out. Mark came down to trouble shoot. The water tank that was full this morning was suddenly empty. It took a bit of searching to find the problem but finally Mark solved the mystery. A hose going into the hot water tank had come loose and all of the precious water had poured into the bilge and been pumped overboard. This is the very first time I have ever headed out on a passage with empty jerry jugs. The other day when Mark and I worked together to fill the water tank, he just ran out of energy and decided to not make one last trip to fill the jugs. So we suddenly had no drinking water. We immediately turned on the watermaker, and . . .

Challenge #6: Watermaker Not Working
After running the watermaker all afternoon, we found that at some point it had just stopped making water. We had only an inch of water in the bottom of the tank. Now what to do? In the morning we will go to shore in search of water.

Okay. I’m exhausted just rehashing the day’s challenges. And Mark and Kevin are both already in bed because they are exhausted from fixing the issues. Kevin offered to put on a new water hose going to the water heater once the engine cooled down. In the meantime, he and Mark worked on the watermaker. They tried all the quick fixes which weren’t so quick and nothing worked. The only thing to do is take the unit out, take it apart, and rebuild it. That will be impossible to do with the kind of seas that we are expecting, but maybe we’ll have some calm times. As Kevin said after working in almost impossible conditions in the engine room, “So this is what cruising is all about.” Yep. And it sure is handy to have a problem solver like Kevin aboard to help Mark with these issues.

We’ll start the morning trying to rectify a couple of our issues. Kevin is going to dive on the prop and scrape off the growth. If he is successful, it is our hope that a clean prop will take some of the load off the engine and keep it from overheating. Then we are going to go to shore in search of water. It is quite a distance to shore and if it is still windy we’ll probably get thoroughly soaked with salt spray on the way back to the boat. But if we find water, it will be worth it. We have time to do this as we aren’t in a big hurry in the morning. It is about an hour from here to the Ft. Pierce Inlet where we will head out to sea. We can’t make slack tide in the morning, so we are hoping to go through the pass at slack tide just afternoon. Then we will finally be on our way.

160219 Day 120 Florida, USA–Kevin's First Day Aboard

Day 119, Year 11: Sailing North Tomorrow
Date: Thursday, February 18, 2016
Weather: Sunny, Hi Temp 70’s, Low 60’s, Wind NE 15-20
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

A lot can happen in 24 hours. Just after I sent the log last night, I got a call from my sister-in-law Sue solving one of our problems. She read the log, talked to her daughter who is my niece Lynn, and arranged for Mark and me to stay in Lynn’s condo which is just north of Boston. Lynn is not living in the condo right now, so this will work out perfectly for us. I would never have thought of this, so thank you Sue and thank you Lynn. After I talked to Sue, Mark called. He had received an email from me earlier in the evening suggesting that we take advantage of the weather window in the next few days to move Windbird to Little River in South Carolina. After reading the email, Mark checked flights to West Palm for himself, called our friend Kevin Russell to see if he could possibly drop everything and fly to Florida today in order to sail north with us, and he also checked the weather. So by the time I talked to him at 9:30 last night, everything was in motion. Heather drove Mark to Boston to catch an 8 am flight and he arrived just before noon today. Claire drove Kevin to Dulles this afternoon and he arrived about 7 pm this evening. And the weather is more or less cooperating. So we have crew, we have a weather window, and we have a place to stay near Boston. Unbelievable. And we have received so many wonderful emails and phone calls lending support. Thank you, thank you, to all.

Sue and Brad have been so supportive. I emailed Sue this morning to let her know what are plans were. I no sooner sent that email than she called insisting that they pick Mark up from the airport and then come pick me up to take us food shopping for the passage. When they got here with Mark, we took them out to lunch at E.R. Bradley’s Saloon which is right across from the city docks. After lunch they took us food shopping and returned us to the dock. I spent the afternoon cooking while Mark rested. And then this evening we went to shore to meet Kevin. We had dinner at the Tin Fish, our favorite little restaurant here. When we got back to Windbird, we put the dinghy on the deck and “battened down the hatches” so we will be ready for an early morning take-off. The one little glitch in our plans is the weather tomorrow. Last night the NE wind was not predicted to be so strong, but by mid-day today it was obvious that heading out to sea tomorrow could be a little rough. Captain Mark has decided that we will stay inside in the Intracoastal tomorrow. We will try to make it to Ft. Pierce and we will then then go outside on Saturday morning. The wind will have subsided a bit and the seas will be as rough. By Saturday night or Sunday morning things will have settled so much that we will have to motor, but that is fine. We just want to get the boat to a safe place where we will feel good about leaving her for a couple of months. Little River is that place, so that is where we are headed.

In an email to Kevin this morning, I called him an angel. He took full advantage of that. He immediately wrote back with a cc to Claire directing her attention to his new title. He wanted to make sure she saw it because he said it might be the only time in his life someone gives him that ‘honor’. He can joke all he wants, but when you can call someone on such a short notice and they come to your rescue, it feels a bit like an angel has touched your life. I won’t call him that again as it will go to head, but he deserves a little special attention. He will take Mark’s night shifts so Mark will only have to get up if there is a problem that Kevin and I can’t solve. In addition, he will add levity to the trip. And right now, a little levity is much needed. So thank you, Kevin.

We will raise anchor at 6:45 am and go through the Flagler Bridge at the 7:15 am opening. At least that is the plan. We will stop for fuel a few miles north and then head for Ft. Pierce. I’m actually fine with staying inside tomorrow. Sailors never like to start a passage on a Friday as it is bad luck. So we will just say that we are starting the passage on Saturday morning when we head out to sea at Ft. Pierce.

Day 118, Year 11: Good News, Bad News
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Weather: Sunny, Hi Temp 70’s, Low 50’s, Wind N’ly
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

The good news is that there was no extreme weather today. The bad news came from Mark. Yesterday’s scan confirmed that his cancer is no longer slow growing. Things have changed quite a bit in the past month and his oncologist is recommending that he starts a trial ASAP. After the scan in January, she had tests run on specimens of his cancer that have been preserved. It’s much too complicated to explain, especially since I am not sure I fully comprehend it myself, but basically there seems to be nothing tried and true left to use other than radiation. The radiation can whack out a bit of cancer here, but then it can pop up somewhere else. That’s referred to as the “whack-a-mole” game. Thus the need for entering a trial with a drug that looks promising. The chemo drug would be used in combination with the biologic that Mark had last winter. The problem for us is that he would need to be in Boston at least one day a week for as long as the treatment is working. The other problem is that this needs to start now, not later. So we have a lot of figuring out to do. We have to get Windbird back to Little River as soon as possible and then wait for the weather to warm up before sailing her back to Cape Cod. Once Mark starts the trial treatment, he will not be able to leave the Boston area. Without the boat there, we have no place to live. So you get the idea. This will not be easy to figure out. But we will figure it out. Just hang in there with us. So no Bahamas this year and no more Florida. One way or another we, or me, or both of us, are headed north. What a difference a day can make.

I received this news this afternoon while I was wandering through the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden here in West Palm Beach. Lovely little place. I spent the morning on the boat catching up on things that needed to be done. But it was a beautiful day and I wanted to take a long walk. So I walked a mile and a half to the sculpture garden and then walked another mile and a half to City Place to the supermarket. By the time I got there it was after 4 pm, so I took the trolley back to the dock. Tomorrow I’ll stay on the boat and start getting things ready to sail north. I’m not sure when this will happen, but I’ll be prepared.

160217 Day 118 Florida, USA–Ann Norton Sculpture Garden

Day 117, Year 11: Early AM Fright, PM Trip to Lauderdale
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Weather: Extreme AM T-storm, Then Overcast Going Partly Sunny PM
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

I’m ‘done’ with this extreme weather, but obviously it is not done with me. I woke up at 6 am and thought there was a police boat outside because there was a flashing strobe light. I quickly got dressed and went to the cockpit to hear thunder and see that the strobe light was actually lightening—a very strange, flashing lightening that I’ve never seen before. It was raining and was windy, but it has been windy since Sunday evening. So I went back to bed. I no sooner got in bed when I heard that awful sound roar like a train going through the boat and about that time a gust of wind heeled the boat enough that anything not tied down went crashing to the floor. I jumped up and turn on the navigation instruments to see 35-40 knot winds. Of course, the gust that heeled us over had moved on and according to the weather on my phone, West Palm was getting 55-60 knot winds and there was a tornado watch for Palm Beach County. Aye-yai-yai. I sat in the cockpit and watched the wind blowing the tops off the chop in the anchorage making it look boiling pot. The couple on one of the boats next to us was out on deck appearing to re-anchor. I didn’t think we had drug on our anchor, but I wasn’t sure. Either that boat had just moved or we had, but whichever, we all still looked fine. I sat on watch until the wind died down and went back to bed hoping that I would wake up in an hour or so to a calm, sunny day. Well, I got one wish. It was calm, but not sunny. But that’s okay. I LIKE calm!

The rest of the day was not so dramatic. I used the water accumulated in the dinghy from the morning rain to do a laundry and then walked to the train station. I got there early, so I sat and read. I’m reading a really good book recommended to me by Detta Porat a year ago. I’m just now getting around to reading it and thought it was ironic that I was going to Fort Lauderdale to meet Detta’s husband, Tom, today. By the way, the book is ‘The Signature of All Things’ by Elizabeth Gilbert—a really good read. I met Tom at the Fort Lauderdale Airport TriRail Station and we walked down the street to the nearest restaurant. We enjoyed the meal, but more than that, we enjoyed getting to talk face-to-face for the first time in ages. We walked back to the TriRail Station and just as we got there, I heard a train whistle. It was the northbound train and we were on the southbound side. I waited until the train stopped and then went across the tracks even though the gates were down. I got to the train in time to hop on, but the conductor met me at the door to reminded me that it is a $10,000 fine to do what I had just done—when the cross bars are down, you don’t cross the tracks. I guess the next time I find myself in that situation, I’ll wait for another train.