Weather Window

With Brad safely back on the boat, we have set our sights on our next adventure - heading South for the summer. A quick look at our To Do List and a double check of the weather has us looking at Friday as a departure date. This means that we will leave our current anchor spot on Thursday afternoon to head South to the end of Elizabeth Harbour so we can "stage" our departure for the following day. "Stage" means that you get in the best possible position to be able to leave at first light the following day. In this case, that is only about 5 miles South of our current spot - but this is 5 miles off our trek the following day. That's a whole hour, so that makes a big difference!

We worked on a few last minute boat projects today and started going over our provisioning lists to see what we need to get before we go. Luckily, we are more ready than we thought and should have everything done by Wednesday night, leaving Thursday for last minute errands and goodbyes with friends.

We are so excited for this next part of our trip and hope to catch up with some old boating friends along the way! Goodbyes are hard, but reuniting with old friends makes those a little bit easier.

Bad Weather Blues

Laundry is done, jerry jugs are filled, provisions are stocked and now....we wait. Winds have been steady over 10 knots for the past few days, which would be good sailing - if they weren't coming directly from where we need to go! Seems the fronts keep pushing through so either the winds are strong out of the North, which is a no go when crossing the Stream, or they are blowing like stink from the East.

During a recent happy hour gathering, we were told that this was the El Nino year and that doesn't bode well for sailors. The jet stream dips lower and keeps that fronts coming through and the winds strong out of the East. This is great once you get down to the Caribbean and can just sail North to South - beam reach heaven the whole time. But, if you're trying to go East, you are shit outta luck (pardon the saying).

So, we wait. Or you can do what most of us antsy sailors are going to do this week and wait for light winds and try to sneak farther North up the Keys. This gives you a new location to explore, a new anchorage and more friends to meet, and also puts you closer to the Bahamas Bank - which translates into less sailing at one time. So, tomorrow, if the weather subsides, we will sneak out into the deep and try to get closer to Miami. If the weather really lays down and we are happy with the sea state, we may go all the way! Otherwise, we will get as far as we can and then tuck into a safe harbour by sundown. At this point, we are just going stir crazy being in one spot, so any movement is a step forward!

Hopefully King Neptune will bless us with calm seas one day soon and we can safely cross to the Bank and get on with our winter sailing adventure!