Adventure or Attitude

Entering the locks

We have heard many times that your attitude determines whether what you are doing becomes an adventure or obstacle*. We choose adventure. As we untied the dock lines, we knew there would be glitches that would show up that would need to be dealt with. We were hoping that we would get to our first anchorage before any showed up. Not to be. To head to our intended anchorage we had to follow some rather mystic directions down the channel, past the dock with the white pilings (they all have white pilings), around the bend staying to the port side of center, etc. to end up at the lock seven miles away. All went well for the first mile or so and then we noticed the temperature gauge starting to climb. Attitude or adventure. The scenery was beautiful so we slowed to just above idle to see if that would cool the engine. Yeah! That worked......for another mile. Then the temperature gauge started climbing again. The boat was still peeing, which is a good sign, but the temp gauge was not slowing down. Fortunately we were entering a wider part of the channel and we could raise the sail and give the motor a break. With less than stellar wind speeds, we crept along and hoped to make it to the lock where we could use the motor just a little if needed. Success! Now...how to work this manual lock?? It wasn't pretty, but we made it through. Now we were in a wider body of water, no more than 10 feet deep any place. We knew then that if the wind didn't favor us, we could just drop the anchor. But the wind continued, little that it was, and allowed us to make progress toward our intended anchorage. Guess what? We made it and were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset. We sat on the bow for a long time. Mike couldn't get the grin off his face! This morning found Mike tearing into the engine, when what appeared along side us?? A dolphin! Now I had a grin a mile wide. I think we are going to like this lifestyle!

 

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