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.
