Well, this morning saw Journey leaving the creek and getting underway. We are finally headed south on our cruise to the Bahamas. Once we reached the Pungo river, we fooled around for an hour and a half setting up the autopilot, Wolley. (That's it's name, thanks Bill) Boy is that one sweet piece of equipment! It (he, because he's like a third crewmember) did most of the steering for the day, and never asked for a thing. Well, except for power, and that was easily given, because we couldn't sail.
Yep, right after we started out, I went to unfurl the genoa (front sail that unrolls) and it was stuck. Al and I managed to unfurl it by hand, roll it back up with much difficulty, and then we decided to see what the problem could be. Al thinks one of the bushings looks worn, broken, and past usefulness. As soon as I could get a cell signal, I made a call to our favorite yard, Sailcraft, in Oriental. We are now sitting in the spillway, waiting for Monday morning.
We counted our blessings all the way to the boatyard, this could have happened down the way, where we didn't know the yards, further down the way, where there are no yards, or worst case scenario.... it could have happened "out there'. Offshore, with no way to furl the sail back up, could have been a real mess! For those of you who are keeping up with the ongoing rib saga, it is now DAY 4, and even with the boat rolling side to side all day, I came through in relative comfort. I had a couple of small pains, and hardly any discomfort today.
For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, last Tuesday evening, I broke a rib in a nasty mash-up with a shopping cart at WalMart. On reflection, I should have just maced it. Since I was already at WalMart when this happened, I swung by the Lady's undies dept. and bought one of those waist cincher things... you know a "make you two jeans sizes smaller!" girdle affair. It is something that anyone can use to imobilize a broken rib; much more user friendly and comfortable than ace bandages, so laugh if you will, but I'm mending better for it.
So as we sit tonight, not heading south anymore, but waiting for Monday morning so we can spend $$$ fixing the boat, we are happy, pain free (mostly) and about to be well fed. That is, if I can ride a bike with a bum rib. We are headed to The Silos. Everyone in the Oriental area should come by and see us tomorrow. You know where we are!
