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03/26/2007: "Hi Flite back home"

We brought Hi Flite home on Saturday. We ran around doing various errands in the morning, and then around 1:00 pm, which was high tide, we motored up the waterway with the wind at our backs to the Neuse River. It took about an hour to get to the river at which time we hoisted sails and planned on a fun sail back up the river. Unfortunately, the wind had died. By the time we had everything hoisted we were sitting in flat calm water. Back to motoring. We knew that the calm wouldn’t last long but we weren’t about to just sit there. As we motored up river with the main and mizzen set we could see ripples on the water showing that the breeze was coming back. And come back it did, 15 knots dead on the nose. This wasn’t too much of a problem since the river is wide enough to tack in if you are not in a hurry. About this time we called my sister, who was on her way to visit, to find out where they were and about what time they would be at the marina. They were about a half hour away so time became a factor. We motor-sailed back the creek, dropped the sails and headed back to the marina. It turned out that it was a good thing we hurried back since the wind was out of the south. As I have mentioned before, a strong wind out of the south will push the water out of the creek. When we approached the docks we were already dragging the keel in the mud slowing us down considerably. This does help counter the effect of a cross wind but it is hard on a new paintjob.

We hoped to make it out for a sail on Sunday but the wind had turned from the northeast overnight and was kicking things up quiet a bit out on the river. We ended up spending the day as tour guides but it gave us an excuse to hit some shops we had wanted to go to anyway.

Today is Monday and it is back to work as usual.