Day 177, Year 8: Nine Hours to Departure
Date: Monday, April 29, 2013
Weather: Winds SSW 10, High Temp in Low 70’s F—Lots of Rain
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
In only nine hours, I’ll be departing Windbird and she will be pulling out of the slip here at Lightkeepers Marina headed for Cape Cod. We have been here for five months and have enjoyed every minute of the time here. We have met new boating friends and have spent some quality time with Patsy and Joe. We are going to miss them so very much. And we thank them so much for letting us use their van. This is not a place where you can rely on public transportation as there is none in Little River, so you are dead in the water without a car. We had a fantastic farewell dinner at Patsy and Joe’s tonight. Joe grilled chicken and shrimp and Patsy fixed broccoli and potatoes. And for dessert Joe made shortcake to go with strawberries and whipped cream. Joe does a great job grilling chicken and getting it just right and we grilled the shrimp just like my nephew Tommy did when he was here a few weeks ago. We used a McCormick’s marinade called Backyard Brew and it is the best–not to mention that the shrimp we get here is caught locally and that it is also fantastic.
Lee and Lynda came to Windbird late in the afternoon to get a bit of an orientation and they will return in the morning before 7:30 am. That is take-off time. The weather for the first few days of the trip looks less than perfect, but not bad enough to put off the departure. It’s going to be rainy and windy with the wind coming from the north and east. That is precisely the way Windbird will be headed, so we just have to hope that the winds aren’t so strong that they impede progress. Windbird will be headed up the Intracoastal Waterway to Norfolk and then up the Chesapeake Bay and through the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal to the Delaware Bay and finally out to sea. The trip should take about two weeks. Mark will be emailing me information about each day and I will then write the logs based on his information. So logs will be second-hand, but I’ll do my best to capture the progress.
