Rough First Leg

As I sit here in the cockpit, Remedios tied to the dock in Bayfield, WI, with the crew beginning the day the winds are calm, the sun is shining and the coffee is hot. This is a big contrast to our first day out from Duluth/Superior, which was a pretty rough time with cold, rain, wind and 4-6 foot waves. We did not get a chance to raise the sails given that the wind was directly on our nose and we had a date with our sailmaker,Pete Kulenkamp, in Bayfield. As a consequence, we had to motor into the wind to get here in time. We anchored in Raspberry Bay in The Apostle Islands on Tuesday night and got here a little before noon yesterday.

On that first day, both Tom and I were seasick but thanks to Rob's iron stomach we had at least one of us feeling better than warmed death. The good thing about seasickness is that as soon as the motion stops, the stomach settles and getting in to anchorage had us feeling better in a short time. The calm water in Raspberry Bay was a great relief! Tom states without hesitation that it was the most miserable time he has ever spent afloat, and for me it was the second most. Rob just says he spent the day thankful that he wasn't going through what he saw us living with.

Yesterday we spent our time doing a number of additional jobs that two weeks of rainy weather had prevented. The anchor chain is now marked at 25 foot intervals so that we can easily tell how much we have paid out into the water when we are anchoring. We also ran new lines for some of our rigging, hoisted all the sails to assure they ran well and had sailmaker Pete give us a few important pointers. I even got a tutorial and materials for emergency sail repairs.

Keeping busy helps to offset the fact that we already miss our family and friends, but it helps only a little. I keep rolling the series of farewells, the songs and the hugs through my mind and it brings both a smile and a tear. Well, I need to go as we prepare for a stop at the fuel dock and departure for the Keweenaw!

Pat