I've been a very bad blogger, but I sort of have an excuse!

While this may seem like an idyllic picture of our boat, don't let it fool you!

We are now into day ten of our trip from Kent Narrows, Maryland to Jacksonville, Florida via the Intracoastal.

So far we've experienced three feet of water in a locker, an overnight sail that involved 30+ knot winds with 3-5 feet of swelling waves (at 3 AM one of them playfully washed over the stern, Hans head, and then crashed around the cockpit), a puking crew (that would be me!), and freighters that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Our GPS, also known as 'Fritz', decided to take advantage of our agony and took his union break. Fritz now does as he pleases and just dares us to turn him into the 'Big Boss'.

Big Boss or not, Fritz will be replaced when we reach Charleston, SC.

There is three feet of water in that locker.

We finally figured out that while our girl was on the hard this summer, the drain from a locker at the bow of our boat was leaking. For two months rain water accumulated here and it was stinky and gross!

We ended up replacing the hoses ourselves and lost a full day of sail.

Hans McGyver rigged up a syphon to the bilge, therefore we didn't need to buy a pump!

Along with the portable ice maker that we bought, good old Evan Williams tried to make me forget my troubles.

This is our salon area. This summer Wilbur wreaked havoc on the cushions so I decided to made some covers.

I used some old king size sheets and while they worked, I'll use better fabric if I ever do this again.

The cushions vary in size so I used a Sharpie and wrote the designation for each piece on its elastic.

Hopefully they'll improve the life of my cushions for awhile.

We are currently in North Carolina and expect to be in the Cape Fear River tomorrow.

I have to say this has certainly been a very interesting trip and I don't expect that it will change.

What was I thinking?

Last night was a marathon in madness.

We (Hans) made the decision to make a 24 hour sail. We were 10 miles out at sea and were able to use the sails for quite awhile. Unfortunately we've had to motor far too much. Then the winds kicked up and the whole place was jumping!

30 knot winds are just not for me. The boat slammed, rolled, and jerked for over 10 hours. This was all night long and made it impossible to sleep. We were going to spell each other with 2 hour watches but I was completely useless. Hans never left the helm and finally all 3 of the guys stayed in the cockpit and slept in about 30 minute intervals.

In the meantime everything was sliding around the cabins and galley with a nerve racking rhythm. We hadn't foreseen 30 knot winds and did not secure the interior as I'm sure other seasoned sailors would have.

I had tried to sleep in my bunk but as it's in the front of the boat the rocking was too insane so I tried to sit in the cockpit. We are fortunate to have a hose on deck but as luck would have it, it quit working when we needed it to hose down the big mess I left down the whole back of the boat. Hey! a person can only lean overboard so far with out falling in! Hans came in to use the head and the boat gave a mighty lurch, sending him face first into the salon bench. I was sure he'd been knocked out and he landed right by my feet. He was alright though and didn't even break his glasses.

Back down I went, but I stayed in the salon area and lying on the cushions with the mast light glaring in on me through the ceiling hatch and listening to all of the pots, pans, silverware, etc... sliding and slamming around for hours gave everything a surreal feeling. I dozed and puked until I had the dry heaves (sorry!) but I never slept.

Morning and the bay we were aiming for arrived and Scotty asked me, "Hey, Laura are you going to make eggs and sausage this morning?"

What do you think?

So the guys were up for over 24 hours with little to no sleep but that's ok, they have plenty of time to make up for it.

Why?

Because now we're aground in 2 and a half feet of water (there are some missing markers) and we have to wait for a few hours for high tide.

FYI

Just in case you're wondering?

A 5 gallon bucket works just as well as a 5 pound coffee can.