Happy Birthday Tasha!

Happy Birthday Tasha!   …   Thursday July 4th 2013

We were supposed to be going to a July 4th barbecue with our friends Will and Sandy. We didn't even get to call them - we spent the whole day at the hospital. I don't think anyone was that surprised - "it" was overdue. Well that was 21 years ago to the day. Gloria woke me about 5am to say we needed to go. We drove to Macclesfield Hospital and spent the day in the delivery room trying to take Gloria's mind off the pain by talking about all the nice places we'd been. The hospital kindly provided regular meals for the patient, but Gloria couldn't eat them in case she had to have an anesthetic. Just as well I was there or all that food would have gone to waste! By late afternoon things were getting rather too exciting, but at 7.15pm after a great deal of effort our darling little daughter was born. We hadn't known in advance that "it" would be a girl and we struggled to break the habit of calling the baby "it", which invariably provoked smart reprimands from the midwife.  Tash was born with a torpedo shaped head and a mop of black hair, which fell out over the next few days and thankfully her head also took on a more normal shape! It was a couple of years later that she uttered those fateful words to her Grandmother (Meme) … "I'm in charge!" …  but from the outset I think there was little doubt in her mind. It is entirely appropriate that Tash was born on Independence day as she has always been a free and independent spirit. It seems almost inconceivable that 21 years have passed. It has been an unbelievable experience and a privilege to watch her grow up. We gather that she had a fun evening leading in to her birthday and finally got to bed about 2.30am. She was up again at 5am, having slept through 2 alarms, but was eventually woken by her friends and hiked part way up Mt. Baldy to watch the sunrise whilst drinking champagne! A fine way to start the day. The great thing about being born on the 4th of July is that it's always a holiday in the USA and there are lots of parties going on. From what we can gather Tash has a busy and fun day ahead of her.

We were also up early today and made the journey from Port Jefferson up Long Island Sound to Plum Gut and then over to Three Mile Harbor near East Hampton. It was a long, hot and somewhat frustrating trip as we pretty much motored the entire way. On the coast of New England it's fairly typical for the wind to strengthen in the afternoon and it's more likely that you will end up motoring if you leave early in the morning. As you may have gathered, patience isn't a real strength of mine, but on this occasion it wasn't me "champing at the bit" that prompted the early start, but rather the need to cover 42 nautical miles to Plum Gut before the tide turned against us at about 3pm. Currents through the cut can run up to 5kts - either for or against you - depending on your timing. So we pulled up anchor shortly before 7am, raised our main in the hope of doing at least some sailing and then proceeded to motor. The winds were light to non existent. Initially we had about 1kt of current against us, but gradually this changed and we reached Plum Gut at about 1pm having had positive current (up to 2 kts) for the previous 3 hours. Once through the gap we turned south towards Three mile Harbor and attempted to sail the last 7 miles with what appeared to be the makings of a breeze. Well that didn't last long. Our initial 3.3 kts dwindled to < 2 Kts and we were struggling to maintain steerage around the crab pots. So back on with the engine and let's get there quickly. The half mile long entry channel was easy to navigate and once inside the bay there was plenty of room to anchor in about 15ft of water. Needless to say, no sooner had we dropped the hook than the wind piped up and started to blow steadily! We were really hot after the trip and had a wonderful swim off the boat - surprisingly, not something that we've done all that often. Now we are in the middle of barbecuing pork filet to eat with biscuits and gravy, butternut squash and corn. To be honest our food supplies are rapidly dwindling as we head towards the end of our trip. But don't panic - there is little chance that we will be returning hungry!

Mike

41 00.831 N, 72 11.113 W

4th July dinner in the cockpit

Everything made of cloth has taken a real beating on this trip - our clothes, the bimini, fender covers, genoa etc. I had plenty of time today to look at my boat shoes - what a mess!