We left Corfu early, headed for Dubrovnik: the troika of Jackie, Captain Ken and me. The Captain had checked the weather: sunny, clear and 20 kts (on the nose, of course). It started out with dead clam (as Mike Fauser likes to say). However, after a few hours, the winds picked up (and I DO MEAN PICKED UP) to 40 plus, with huge waves. What a day and night it was! The worst part was that we made no headway, sometimes seeing speeds over the ground (SOG) of .6. I don't think I've ever seen that. Our total mileage was 60 NM for the 24 hours. The Captain said it was his lowest one-day nautical mileage ever. It became readily apparent that our overnight would become 2 overnights (at least). I was starting to think we might never get to Dubrovnik and might have to come up with a Plan B. And then, George, our autopilot, decided he was not up to the task and could not hold the course. That left us to hand steer...one of my worst nightmares on watch. It means no reading, no crosswords, no Candy Crush or Cookie Jam or (or my current addiction), no Jigsaw Puzzle Pro (thanks Linda). Watches seem to last much longer.....not to mention that if George, with his 48,000 miles of steering practice had trouble holding the course, you can only imagine what it was like for me who has, let's say, less than 48000 miles of experience. After a few hours of hand steering, George, once again stepped up to the plate and showed us his stuff. WHEW!

In the middle of this very, very uncomfortable passage, just around the time most of the rest of the world would be starting happy hour, Ken gave an OMG. Heading towards us, about 100 feet abeam was a windsurfer. We were about 5 miles from the shore and it was about then that I thought I was hallucinating. We watched him continue out (towards Italy)...keeping an eye on him should a rescue be necessary. He did drop once, but picked himself, and finally ended up headed back to the coast of Albania. Needless to say, he made MUCH better time than we did in the 40 kts of wind, but then, he was able to choose his direction. I don't think he was one of the 'boat people' they write about.