As always, by the time Jack and I crawled out from under the covers Snow White was already gone. We took our time getting our act together given that we only had about 22 miles to go and life would be so much more pleasant once the sun warmed us up a little. Jack suggested we raise the main at anchor to allay my fears that we might not have it furled properly and to check the wayward number four batten pocket. It was nearly dead calm so we hoisted the main and refurled it, which straightened out the wrap on the mandrel and reassured me that all was well with the sail. Except sure enough, that number four batten pocket is way crooked and there’s no way a batten wouldn’t get broken when forced to wrap around the mandrel. I can’t believe no one ever noticed this. We’ll give the original sailmaker a call when we get to his neck of the woods. In the meantime, we go without number four.
We weighed anchor and left Oriental, a moment that was preserved forever by the anchorage webcam.
It was warm enough to roll up the center window for a while and we had an uneventful run down to Moorhead City, accompanied for a few minutes by a couple of dolphins.
We took the easy way out and tied up to the Sanitary Seafood Company dock for $25, then took a turn around town, stopping for coffee and a pastry at a cute little shop that also had this for sale:
Cute joke? Or bad spelling. You decide.
We caught the last few thin rays of sunshine before we had to retreat inside from the rising damp.