Day 179, Year 9: Migration North
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2014
Weather: Sunny, Cold, and Windy
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts

It is the time of year that birds and cruisers start their migration north. On Saturday morning when I was out with the boys while they were biking, we heard quite a commotion of honking geese and then shortly we saw them flying overhead in their V formation. We then assumed they landed somewhere else close-by to gather more geese when we heard another noisy commotion. Since that time we have not seen a single goose and nor have we seen our little bufflehead duck friends. So we think they all chose Saturday, with strong winds blowing from the south, to head north for the summer. And today we talked with cruising friends we met in the Indian Ocean and they are in Florida getting ready for their ‘flight’ north. So it is most definitely time for the migration north.

The friends we talked with today were Peppe and Bob, formerly of sailing vessel Far Niente. We met them in Chagos in the Indian Ocean and spent time with them in South Africa. They left South Africa after we did and their circumnavigation ended abruptly off the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico when Far Niente went on a reef and was not able to be rescued. Bob and Peppe were fine, but they were boatless. They returned home to the state of Washington and just a few weeks ago they bought another boat and are now in Florida getting ready to launch her. This weekend they will rendezvous with Chris and Geoff of Shambala (Australia) and Ed and Lynne of Constance (USA) who are all in Florida as well. We will miss being a part of this reunion, but it was great to catch up with Peppe and Bob today. They are going to be heading up the eastern coast of the US and hopefully we will see them later in the summer. We sure do miss cruising and our cruising friends, so it was great to connect today.

Mark and I spent our day at Heather and Jed’s taking care of Jonah and Ollie. Jonah still had a bit of a fever this morning and couldn’t go to school. He has no other symptoms other than a bit of congestion and he seemed to be much better by the end of today. So he might be able to go to school tomorrow. Sam is now officially on ‘spring break’ and has tomorrow and all of next week off school. Mark goes to work at West Marine tomorrow, so Sam and Ollie and I will hold down the fort at home.