Day 9, Year 1: Happy 31st Anniversary . . . a little early
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Town Dock, Lewes, Delaware

This is the log for Wednesday, October 25. The weather continues to be cool, but today was a beautiful sunny day, with more of the same forecast for the coming week. Tomorrow is our 31st wedding anniversary, but since I will be heading to Hampton, Virginia, for a three-day offshore medical course, we celebrated this evening. We had dinner at the Café Azafran in Lewes. This is a great little place with a Mediterranean menu, live music, and owners, Mark and Jessica Steele, who have sailed to the Mediterranean and own a Dickerson sailboat. Our boat prior to Windbird was a Dickerson, so we immediately struck up a conversation with Mark. Dickersons are Chesapeake Bay built boats and it is always great to meet people who are of the same “kind.”

Not much happened today in terms of boat progress. We can’t order a new engine until we can find out if the transmission we need is available in this country. The engine is in New Jersey and is available, but the transmission “might” be in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The problem is that there is no phone service to the plant in Ft. Lauderdale due to Wilma. Until we can hear from them, there is no way to know what we will be able to do. If the transmission is in Ft. Lauderdale and can be sent out next week, we will go ahead with the purchase and installation of a new engine. However, if a new transmission is not available right away, we might decide to go with our current engine with the rebuilt v-drive. There are many decisions and each one depends on something that we have little or no control over. But things do seem to get a little better each day, so we will hope for the best.

Mark is still planning to sail the boat around to the Chesapeake this weekend. Unfortunately, the tides and winds will be against him on Saturday, but Sunday and Monday look better. He is planning to head to Chesapeake City on Saturday, on to the Magothy River in the Annapolis area on Sunday, and then to Oxford, Maryland, on Monday. I will meet him on Sunday evening and sail the last leg to Oxford. Of course, this all depends on finding crew. If we can’t find someone to sail with Mark, we will just wait until Monday and sail around together.

So as with everything in life, flexibility is the key.