Another wild night but the weather forecaster called for a change in wind direction that would shorten the fetch and reduce the sea and for once they were right. We woke up in the AM to slightly reduced winds but greatly reduced waves in the mooring field and after bailing out the dingy I was able to ready the WB for a trip to shore with Peri. It was, however, still raining! Mary Lou and Jay had a rougher night than we did with Jay's bad knee so they didn't come into the dock until much later than we did. By the time we got there we had been to the Driftwood for breakfast (We very highly recommend it, by the way. They do a great breakfast at an incredibly reasonable price), been to a boating supply store to get some more diesel lubricating oil for the Perkins, and made a brief grocery run.

We then met Mary Lou and Jay at the dock and Barb went off with Mary Lou to visit a fabric store (Zimman's in Lynn - a must stop) and a Whole Foods while I brought the morning's purchases back to the boat. I have to do something to the Suzuki as it won't idle properly. I have to rev it up and then shift it and rev it up again. I suspect that the problem lies with the fact that it was initially tuned down south in the warm air and warmer water and the colder temperatures up here have lead to some of the linkages shrinking and they will need to be re-tuned. It has been done! And it runs a lot better. The only thing that I would also like to do is clean the spark plug but that can wait until we get home.

We finally got our walk together down the streets of Marblehead. One of the reasons that I really like doing this is not only to see the sights nor only to show them to Barb, but to look in the stores to get ideas for things that I can make with the tools that I have available that I might be able to sell while we are underway to make a few extra bucks. Today, I saw some interesting things to do with driftwood that would involve a band saw and a small amount of paint.

This afternoon the sun actually shone through and we got some juice from the solar panel. On the negative side the wind died down to the wind generator didn't contribute nearly as much as it did yesterday and last night.

The weather forecast that I got from Clearpoint this morning looks like tomorrow will be the best day to do to Gloucester and the day after for us to head out for Shelburne. We will check again in Gloucester to confirm the conditions and then we'll try heading out. I might put the working jib up just in case the winds prove to be too strong.