Tranquility, tragedy, trials and triumph

4:30 a.m. We're sailing along at 6-7 knots, enjoying a breakfast of hot oatmeal with dried cranberries, flax seed, cinnamon, and brown sugar, listening to jazz on NPR, watching the moon's reflection on the water. Life is good.

But then reality shatters our tiny bubble of bliss: the collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis. Joey called and Denise emailed us about it last night. I woke up at 1:45 and couldn't get back to sleep; after tossing and turning for half an hour, I finally got up. "Are you up?" Wayne asked from the bedroom. "Yes," I responded. "Let's get going." Might as well, we're not going back to sleep.

We can't imagine the horror, the mayhem, the grief. And it's happening in Minneapolis. Home. There could be people we know at the bottom of the Mississippi River right now, entombed in their cars! I just want to be at home with my eyes glued to the TV like everyone else. The news on NPR doesn't tell us anything we don't already know.

Psalm 46:1-2 "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea."

The morning continues. We have a couple of minor irritations (they’re all minor after yesterday’s news): the cockpit is covered with a bazillion minuscule winged insects. They're on the screens, on the canvas, on the cushions and every other surface. We sit on them, walk on them, and brush them off our faces. I have the remains of them on my legs and scrape them off with a fingernail. What the heck?? All I can say is that it's a good thing they don't bite or we'd be in Lake Huron right now.

Minor irritation #2: The generator isn't charging the batteries and Wayne can't figure out why. We didn't need to run the generator until yesterday because we were motoring and the engine was charging the batteries. Now we've been sailing and need to rely on the generator to do it, but something is amiss. We do have solar panels for charging the batteries, but Wayne hasn't connected them yet because the wires were too big to fit through where they needed to go. Well, one way or another we'll get the problem fixed. For those who don't know, the batteries are necessary for powering everything on the boat, vital things like the navigation instruments and the refrigerator, for instance.

Tonight we're docked in Harbor Beach, Michigan. Wayne fixed the battery charger problem. Hallelujah!

It has become more obvious that we needed to leave the North Channel when we did: today they were predicting bad thunderstorms and small craft warnings there and in the northern part of Lake Huron. Instead, we enjoyed a day of great sailing. Someone up there is truly looking out for us.

Question of the day: How did you come up with the name "Lena Bea?" A: We named her after our maternal grandmothers: Wayne's grandma was Lena, and Bea was a nickname for my grandma. Our mothers were less than enthusiastic - they both thought we should have named her Wind Dancer II.