Day 89, Year 11: Sailing South Tomorrow Morning
Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Weather: Sunny and Colder, High 35, Low 22 degrees F
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC
It was a ‘freezy’ day here in South Carolina. Regardless, we have made the decision and are sailing south tomorrow morning. It is a 48 hour passage from here to the Florida-Georgia border and we should arrive there on Friday morning. Tomorrow is going to be warmer than today by about 10 degrees, but it will still be in the 20’s F when we leave the dock around 7 am. It is supposed to be a partly sunny day, so we are going to depend on the sun to warm the cockpit. And at night, we will use our propane Mr. Heater to keep the worst of the chill off in the cockpit while we are on overnight watch. This won’t be the most comfortable passage we have ever made, but when we look at the weather for the next 14 days, this looks like our only window. We will get hit with south winds during the night on Thursday going into Friday morning, but otherwise the winds look fairly benign. But as I am sure all of you are aware, the whole east coast is going to get hit with winter storm Jonas on Friday. Hopefully we will be on a mooring in Fernandina Beach, Florida when the worst of the winds hit. We will plan to stay there until Sunday when the winds die down and hope to do another 48 hour passage on Sunday and Monday to West Palm Beach before the next storm hits. Plans are all weather dependent, of course, so we shall see how things go.
As always, when we start out on a passage, I’ll give my little warning that there is the chance that technology could fail us and we won’t be able to send logs. Hopefully that won’t be the case and we’ll keep you informed about our crazy winter passage down the coast. Send warm thoughts our way!
