Flies

Day one of our cruise began as a spectacular day after a cool evening. Last minute packing and repacking was done so we dragged our gear to the street and grabbed a cab to Columbia Yacht Club. There we split--Beth to the captains' meeting and I to the dock where I was picked up by Mary driving her tender boat. She helped me load the gear and organized volunteers to unload at Speakeasy.

For the first time in recent memory the wind was light. We've had so many windy days with gust of 30-50 kts. Today we motor sail for much of the 27 miles. Or speed varied from a knot to 6 knots depending on wind and engine. Regardless of the speed we had a constant commpanion--flies. Hundreds of flies of different species. Some were smaller and others were larger. Some had red eyes. Some of the flies were biters but none of them were a match for our red swatter. Fly carcuses littered the helm until the white flooring could not be seen.