Day 44: Northwest winds?

The National Weather Service forecast for today called for Northwest winds 10-15mph winds with gusts up to 25.  Okay, first of all the whole Northwest thing is a load of crap.  The Mississippi flows South correct?  Then that should mean a tail wind, which today we clearly didn't not have since it took us all day through sweat, swears, and laughter to go a meager 25 miles.  Also, the part about gusts up to 25.  It was more of a constant 25mph headwind for all 9 hours that were on the water!  Whoa we were whooped and got off the water humble, hurting, and hungry.  Halfway through the day we stopped in a small town to pickup a couple items.  I sent Dave to a small grocery store just off the river to buy several food items and medium feminine pads.  Poor guy he tried his best to get the right ones but as you can see below came out with super absorbant ones.  Haha, love him buy there are some things he will never get right!  So lesson learned ladies...send a picture of exactly what you want if your significant other goes shopping for such items.  After our stop we got going and the winds were even stronger.  As we paddled and making barely any headway a man who was walking his dog stopped dead in his tracks as we paddled by with a look of utter disbelief!  Anyway as we paddled on and the winds blew harder I realized that my feminine products that Dave just bought were likely getting soaked.  I shouted that we had to do something about this immediately.  Nevermind the fact that by me stopping the boat was being blown sideways and nearly tipping as several large 2-3ft waves pounded the side of the canoe.  Dave "assertively" told me to not worry about it now and paddle so the boat didn't flip.  As we grew closer to the dam in the Quad cities the waves pounded our boat relentlessly causing water to drenched h my feet and creating a 3in deep pool of water around me.  The temp was 52 and combined with the cold water and heavy winds turned my feet into painful little icecubes.  Finally we locked through Lock and Dam 15 spent about 45mi paddling another mile or two before reaching a suitable island to camp on.  We were told about this site by a  couple old guys we ran into when we stopped and a yacht club to empty some of the water out of our boat via a sponge.  We hastily unloaded and set up the tent so I could warm up my feet.  While I was changing into dry warm clothes Dave's shouted "oh shit our boat is floating away!"  He immediately volunteered to swim out to get it (thank god cause I sure wasn't going to do that.  Which he understood by the look on my face).  Within seconds he had stripped down to his boxers put his PFD on and ran down to the river.  The boat and drifted about 100 yards down and was about 30 yards out.  He swam suprisingly quick and pulled it back to shore.  While he was getting the boat I quickly got towels and his sleeping bag out to warm him up when he got out since the water and air temps were pretty cold.  He made it back fine and soon we were warm dry and eating a great meal of cheese noodles!  I think this campsite can only be named "It gown Island."  "Why name it that?" you may ask.  Well there is only one thing to say when your canoe floats off down the river...It gown.