Day 373, Year 10: James Meets Windbird
Date: Sunday, October 18, 2015
Weather: Sunny and Cold, High mid-40’s F, Low in the 30’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

Brrrr . . . the north wind is blowing and it will reach into the low 30’s F again tonight. Today was only in the 40’s and tomorrow will be the same before it warms back up a few degrees. So today was a cold day for James, the young man that will crew for us from here to Myrtle Beach, to come and meet Windbird. The good thing is that it shouldn’t be much colder than today during our trip south and it will warm up a bit once we reach Norfolk. Thank goodness for that. Mark put James to work even before he got to the boat. When Mark met him at the dock, he had James help load the old mainsail into the dinghy from the car and then get it from the dinghy up and onboard Windbird. Later Mark had James help get the spinnaker on deck in case we need it between here and Norfolk. And then Mark had him put Jed’s Mercury outboard motor into the dinghy to take it to shore. James took all of this in stride and was ready for more. And it was wonderful to have the help with heavy lifting. I think James is going to work out great as crew on Windbird and I hope we can offer him a positive sailing experience in return for his help. When we were showing him our weather sources we discovered that the weather forecast from last night has already changed. Getting a favorable three-day window is looking quite challenging. We will watch carefully and still hope to be able to leave sometime late this week or early next week as we have to get the boat to Myrtle Beach and be ready to fly back here for Mark’s CT on Monday morning, November 16th.

151018 Day 373 Cape Cod, USA–James Meets Windbird

After we gave James a thorough introduction to sailing aboard Windbird, we headed into town to have dinner at Heather and Jed’s. Sam, Jonah, and Ollie see James when they go to Maine each summer and at Christmas time, so they were delighted to see him this afternoon. He played lacrosse with them and then helped them get their Halloween pumpkins ready to carve. James is great with the kids and they love his attention, so it was a wonderful evening with happy little boys. Heather and Jed whipped up a wonderful fall dinner of roasted pork tenderloin, pumpkin risotto, and stir-fried bok choy. And then Jed made fresh apple cider donuts for dessert. All was delicious.