Day 178, Year 8: Windbird’s Trek to Cape Cod, Day 1
Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Weather: Winds Ranging from 10 to 25 ENE, High Temp in Low 70’s F
Latitude: 34 03.153 N
Longitude: 077 53.339 W
Location: Carolina Beach, North Carolina
I picked up Lee and Lynda at 7 am and brought them to Windbird to get ready for take-off. As Windbird pulled out of the slip at Lightkeepers marina at 7:30 am, I felt an emptiness inside. But I didn’t have long to dwell on that. As I was running down the boardwalk to get a photo of Windbird as she entered the Intracoastal, I realized that Mark had the van keys. He had taken them from me when I returned with Lee and Lynda to take something to the van and had forgotten to give them back to me. After a bit more running to get to a place where I could get Windbird’s attention, Mark had to bring Windbird back to a dock to give me the keys. It could have been a smoother start, but even with the delay Windbird was out in the Intracoastal by 7:45 am. What follows is the Captain’s account from today, written to me in an email.
“All in all it was a good day. Slower than expected, but nothing difficult. We started at 0730 and immediately had to pull back in to get the car keys– my bad! I should have remembered to give them to you as soon as I came back from the van. So we finally got off by 0745. Winds were 11 knots and cloud cover was 100 percent. We motored down the waterway at 5.9 knots at 2400 RPM. We set the speed log to MPH at this point (instead of knots) since the waterway is labeled in statute miles. We were passed often with north-bound boats. At about 1126 we were passed by ‘Tautaug’, a nice trawler from New Castle, NH. I chatted with them for a few minutes. By 1330 we passed South Harbor Village Marina where we stayed on the way down. The wind picked up as we entered the Cape Fear River to 20 to 25 knots from the ENE. And the tide was against us. But the good news is that the seas weren’t bad and the autopilot worked nicely keeping a steady course. And the sun came out! At 1630 we came out of Snows Cut and turned south to the anchorage at Carolina Beach. We dropped anchor at 1645 in a totally deserted anchorage in 15 feet of water and let out 90 feet of chain. We had traveled only 44.9 nautical miles over ground, but negative current meant that we traveled 54.4 nautical miles through the water. As for food prep – Lynda did lunch and I was to do dinner, but she went to it so I could write you. Your preparation for us is very much appreciated by all – me especially.”
So it sounds like Windbird’s first day out went well. Tomorrow I fly to Boston and Windbird will make it another 60 some miles northward in the Intracoastal. The weather tomorrow looks benign, but unfortunately windier times are coming—from the northeast.
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| 130430 Day 178 Passage to Cape Cod–Trek to Cape Cod, Day 1 |
