Day 4, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—Rolling Along
Date: Monday, October 26, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny, Wind NE 8-12
Latitude: 39 44.733 N
Longitude: 074 04.687 W
Location: Just E of Barnegat, NJ
Total Miles Traveled: 239 Nautical Miles (5:14 pm)
Today we have had to motor as the winds have been directly behind us and not strong enough to do anything but let us roll with the seas. We tried going further out to sea, but the wind followed . . . directly behind us. We then headed back in toward shore . . . and the wind followed directly behind us. We could have tried poling out the head sail and going wing and wing, but that takes constant watching that Mark really didn’t want to deal with today. So we are motoring along on 3-4 foot seas (James adds “with the occasional 5”) that roll underneath us every few seconds—not rough, just rolling along.
Ugh! Weather decisions make me crazy. We have spent most of the day going back and forth over whether to go straight for Norfolk and possibly or most probably have some squally, ugly weather or to slow down and go into Cape May, New Jersey early tomorrow and wait for fair weather. I thought we had finally made the decision to go into Cape May, but then Mark looked at the weather again this afternoon and we rehashed all the information again. A third option that was discussed was to go into the Delaware Bay and head for the Chesapeake. Right now we are headed for Cape May but new weather information in the morning could change that. So we really haven’t made a decision. We’ll listen to Chris Parker’s weather report in the morning and make the final decision at that point. One of the reasons that we are being overly cautious is due to Chris Parker’s warnings about this upcoming weather ‘event.’ His take on it is that the winds could be more intense than predicted. Hurricane Patricia that hit Mexico a few days ago is now going to impact our east coast weather heading up to the Great Lakes joining with a weather system in Canada. That, plus a cold front that is predicted to stall off the Carolinas is going to bring wind and rain with squalls. That is going to happen, but the exact time that it happens at the mouth of the Chesapeake is the question. We can’t get there until early Wednesday morning and that is probably a few hours too late. So where we will spend the evening of our 41st wedding anniversary is still undecided. But wherever we are we should have a full moon to keep us company as long as the clouds don’t keep her hidden.
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| 151026 Day 4 Passage to SC–Great Kill, NY to Cape May, NJ |
