Day 97, Year 11: All About the Weather
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Rainy
Location: Anchored in West Palm Beach City Anchorage
Whether experiencing it or reading about it, today was all about the weather. We woke up to an overcast, rainy morning, but soon the sky opened up and the rain was pounding down. About that time, we got a radar alert on Mark’s phone. He took a peak and saw that it wasn’t just a rain or flood warning, it was a ‘possible’ tornado headed our way. The last time we saw this kind of warning on Mark’s phone, a few seconds later Windbird was hit by a micro-burst and drug across Quissett Harbor. So we don’t take these warnings lightly. But since there is no place to go when you are on a boat, we just watched the radar and hoped the ‘possible’ tornado didn’t get this far north. It didn’t and we were greatly relieved when the warning time ended. I did see a report on the internet that said a ‘possible’ tornado hit in the Fort Lauderdale area this morning, flipping cars over, ripping off hoods of cars, and generally causing havoc. Like the ‘whatever’ that hit our boat this summer, the weather folks are hesitant to call these events full-fledged tornadoes. They just say ‘possible’ tornadoes. But whatever they are, I’d like them to go away! Heavy rain continued off and on all day and filled the dinghy with water. I also put buckets on the deck, and we now have overflowing five-gallon buckets of water. The rain is supposed to go on through tomorrow, so we continue to be held hostage by the weather. We haven’t been off the boat since we left Little River, but for sure on Friday morning we will make it to shore. We have someone coming to get our dinghy motor for repairs at 9am on Friday and then my sister-in-law Sue and her husband Brad are driving up from Boynton Beach to take us to their house to visit for the day. We are looking forward to walking on land and to visiting with Brad and Sue.
The dinghy motor . . . this is the same motor that was submerged during our “weather event” in June. The Boat Guy on Cape Cod finally got it running. We used it for the rest of the summer and it was great. But it hasn’t been run since we left Cape Cod in late October and Mark cannot get the pull-start working. So we called A Mechanic on Wheels here in West Palm Beach and he is going to come to the dock on Friday morning to pick it us. He says he will return it on Monday and that is good as we are planning to leave here on Tuesday. Hopefully he will be able to get it running. If not, plans will have to be adjusted.
And speaking of plans, we just spent the entire day looking at weather information and learning more about the northern group of islands in the Bahamas, the Abacos. When we left Cape Cod, we assumed we would be returning to the Exumas again this year. But in the past few days, we have been thinking that it would be much easier to go to the Abacos. For one, you can leave from here and not have to travel further south in Florida before crossing. And it will make for a much easier return. If the weather was just right, we could leave the Abacos, hop out into the Gulf Stream, and be back in Little River in 4-5 days. And if not Little River, we could easily make it back to Fernandina Beach. So we spent the day comparing the long term forecasts for Florida versus the Abacos versus the Exumas. And the forecast for February looks a bit dismal for all. We knew that this strong El Nino was supposed to result in drier and warmer weather in the northeast this winter and wetter and cooler weather in the southeast. And it looks like that prediction for the southeast, or at least for Florida, might be accurate. Actually, the forecast is probably not all that dismal. I think we are just tired of looking at weather information. But it really does look like we need to leave here this coming Tuesday, February 2, or wait until after the middle of the month. We had really hoped to just sit here for at least a week, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Since we have to return to the mainland to get Mark to Boston before the end of March, we figure we had better go now while there is a window. Maybe, just maybe, once we reach our destination in the Bahamas we are going to get to sit still and just relax for a few days. Now we just have to make a final decision on just where in the Bahamas we will go.
We might not know exactly where we are going, but we did make one decision today. Since we will probably be leaving Florida on Tuesday, we will visit with Mark’s family on the Gulf Coast this weekend. Mark’s brother will come pick us up on Saturday and his sister will drive us back on Monday. Luckily, Lynda and Lee Kaufman on Sea Turtle plan to arrive here in West Palm Beach on Friday and they have agreed to watch over Windbird in our absence. Thanks, Lynda and Lee!
