Day 180, Year 8: Windbird’s Trek to Cape Cod, Day 3
Date: Thursday, May 2, 2013
Weather: Winds 8-30 NNE to ENE, High Temp in 70’s F, Light Rain in AM
Latitude: 34 58.034 N
Longitude: 076 34.733 W
Location: Intracoastal Waterway, Mile 180, South River off the Neuse River

Tired is the word of the day, but it is ‘tired’ in a good sense. Mark, Lee, and Lynda put in a very long day and the word from them is that they exhausted—but good progress is being made. I’m remembering just how tiring it can be caring for three little ones, but it is something I love doing. Oliver, Heather’s youngest, still has an ear infection and is having trouble sleeping. Heather dealt with him for most of the night, but at 3:45 am I took him and held him until the ‘big boys’ got up at a bright and early 6 am. Oliver is warming up to me more quickly than I thought. When he looks at me, he puts his hand up to his ear as if he is talking to me on the phone. Heather thinks he is trying to figure out why I’m not inside the computer or the telephone! Jonah came in first this morning to make sure I had arrived and what a smile I got when he saw that I really was in the bed. I bought models of a US Airways and American Airlines plane for Jonah and Sam and they had great fun playing with those before school. Jonah and I walked Sam to school while Sam rode his bicycle. This is only the third day he has ridden it without training wheels and he is doing great. Then Heather took Jonah to school and Ollie to day care while I stayed home and did laundry and house cleaning, but before noon, Heather returned to take time to check her beehives. Then it was time to pick Sam up from school and take him to the dentist. He had to have his four lower front-and-center baby teeth extracted to make room for his permanent teeth. The front two had already come in behind the ones pulled today, so he doesn’t really look like a snaggle-tooth. This was the first time he has had any teeth pulled and he was a very brave little boy. Tomorrow promises to be even busier than today, so I had better send this log and get to bed.

130502 Day 180 Cape Cod, USA–First Day Back at H & J's

Now for the Captain’s Log for Thursday, May 2:
“It was a long day. We started at 6:00 with the twilight but before the sun was up. All day we ran the boat hard with RPM’s at 2800 so we could make the almost 75 statute miles (61.7 nautical miles) we needed to do to get to South Creek. As it was we still didn’t arrive until 1825 (6:25 PM). I have used statute miles instead of nautical miles as that is the way the waterway is measured and marked on charts. I guess that’s because the Corps of Engineers is Army, not Navy.

This was not an uneventful day. We had wind against us all day in the range of 8 to 30 knots. The tide was generally in our favor, which is the only thing that counteracted the winds to get us as far as we went. In addition, we had rain – usually light, but enough to restrict visibility- throughout the morning and into the afternoon. Then things slowly cleared and by anchor down we had hot sun! Sometime early this morning we lost charging from the alternator. I investigated and found a wire to the regulator had broken loose. I taped it back as a temporary fix and it never stopped our progress. We motored past Moorhead early this afternoon and turned north. Somehow the head winds followed us so we continued to beat into them. But the real excitement came when we exited Adams Creek into the Neuse River. Now out in the open, the winds had built to 20 to 25 with occasional gusts to 30 – and of course, still on the nose! For two hours we beat into short steep seas, hobby-horsing with a vengeance. Dipping the bow into the seas, then rising out pointing to the sky. Lynda was sleeping in the V-berth and must have levitated with each thrust of the bow but somehow slept through most of it! It was a chance to learn the difference between what is dangerous and what is merely uncomfortable. And it WAS uncomfortable!

When we arrived we were all tired. Lee and I had our ‘anchor beer’ and then I wrote in the log, checked the engine oil and transmission fluid, and spliced and re-connected a couple of wires connecting the regulator to alternator. Lee fixed a salad and heated up some Lasagna (prepared in advance for us by Judy). Lynda did the dishes. And now we are all ready for an early bedtime. Tomorrow we start early once again as we have 72 miles to go. But if the weather is as bad as today’s we may stop after about 45 miles at Belhaven. We will see.”