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Letter from Periauger: Goose Creek to Washington, Sunday, 22 August Today got off to a roaring start with winds blowing through our anchorage at 20 knots. But before I go any further, there is the little adventure my commander and captain had this morning. John was ferrying my crew in his dinghy (my friend HMS Beagle) from their bunk boat Absolute to Kiwi Magic for breakfast. John stopped back again at Absolute to discuss the plan for the day, but didn't pay enough attention to his dinghy, which drifted away from Absolute, down wind toward Destiny - with the motor still idling! He hollered to Bill: "The dinghy is coming your way." It took Bill and Joan a minute to figure out that it was coming their way without John in it, but Bill finally got the picture! Bill did what he had to do: he dove in to retrieve Beagle before she went into the swampy shore. Just before he dove in, he hollered back: "You owe me big time, John." He said later that, as he dove, he had some nasty thoughts about the pig waste effluent put in the rivers by hurricane Floyd, the stories of the flesh eating bacteria some years back, and other bizarre vermin. While this was happening, Dick Mushet, the skipper of Absolute, called Noel on Kiwi to get him to put in his dinghy, and Noel's response was: "Never mind. Bill just dove in." Great help he was! My commander will hear about that one for a while! We had to motor north in the ICW channel into that strong northeast wind toward the Pamlico River, with me tightly tied to Destiny's side. Some waves were shooting up between us and dropping into my hold, getting Bill and Larry wet. (The rest of my crew stayed on Kiwi Magic until John and Bill could assess conditions on the open river. I guess these humans don't like to get wet the way I do). My commander consulted with Bill and they decided to wait to transfer crew until we were at anchor along a protected shore (lee shore for you sailors). Kiwi Magic went on ahead with Absolute to a quiet spot under the lee of the land, and got ready for lunch. Larry and Bill had lunch on Destiny with John and Joan. After lunch all my crew jumped aboard, set sail and off we went at my top speed! (6.4 knots, according to Destiny). Destiny sailed up to us several times, with Joan at her helm and John taking pictures from her bow. They came pretty close! But it was great fun. Gradually the wind lessened and my speed dropped to about 4 knots. After about an hour, Commander John got the first of several urgent phone calls from Claude Milot, my PR guy, who was already in Washington wondering where we were and when we would arrive. Claude told John that we had quite an audience, and that some had expected us at 1300 (1 p.m.). It was now close to 1500, and we were definitely behind schedule. I heard John tell Claude to remind the crowd that I was, after all, a sail boat! But he did give Claude a new ETA of 1730 (5:30pm, land lubbers)! With Joan at her helm, John decided to swing
At 1735, we went through the open railroad bridge into Washington's little harbor, with very little wind and still under tow. We made a slow parade by the town docks under gray skies and a low sun. Bill released our tow line and we ghosted back to the docks under sail to a large group of my fans. Soon, I was tied nicely to the dock and felt quite content. Lots of people came to see me until after sunset. Eventually, my crew were taken away by several very friendly people to their homes in Chocowinity (I guess that is a town nearby). The people here in Washington are so helpful and interested in my expedition. That's all for tonight. I hope that my commander can email this for me soon. I keep writing these diaries, but he is several days behind in sending these to Terry Facey for my web site. Periauger |
Destiny around beside us so Bill could throw our tow rope. John said to leave the sails up (yay!), and he left Destiny's sails up, to her delight. When the wind was too light, Destiny's motor pulled us along at my 6.4 knots, but when the wind filled our sails we scooted along together at over 8 knots!! What a ride that was! Yahoo!
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