Hot to Trot
Thursday 3rd June
We did manage to get some poor and highly variable cell phone service early this morning and updated our weather forecast. (Without cell phone service we still could have accessed the NOAA forecasts via the satellite based Sirius weather module integrated into our electronic navigation system). Unfortunately the forecast was still poor for today with gusty winds, the possibility of heavy thunderstorms this afternoon and a small craft advisory in place. So we took the decision to hang out here in the Sassafras River for another 24 hours. As the day has gone on the weather seems pretty mellow although there still may be storms later. We keep asking ourselves if we over-reacted to the forecast. Of course it’s easy to second guess when you have actually experienced the conditions. In part the decision was based on the predicted conditions in Delaware Bay on Friday and Saturday and we remain confident that we will have an easier 60 mile passage down Delaware Bay to Cape May on Saturday than was likely if we had gone ahead as planned. However, it’s a valid question whether we are becoming too cautious. We are colored by our experiences and ignoring a small craft advisory when we left York, Maine last summer lead to one of the roughest sails we have ever had. However, it seems that not all Small Craft Advisories are equal!
As you probably realize “hanging out” is not my greatest strength, so I’ve been spending the day doing some much needed boat cleaning. I started by brushing the ~ 2 feet of hull below water level to get rid of some of the vegetation that builds up (despite the anti-fouling). I’m not sure how much difference, if any, this makes to our speed but the boat at least looks better. Then it was polishing our stainless steel rub rails and then more generally the stainless steel in the cockpit. Finally I started work on cleaning some of the gel-coat in the cockpit. Overnight we were struck with an infestation of flying insects called “Fuzzy Heads”. On initial inspection they look very similar to large mosquitos but thankfully they don’t bite. However, they leave bluish green stains on the surfaces they land on and there were literally hundreds of these bugs in the cockpit this morning. Our gel-coat, both in the cockpit and on deck needs a lot of attention, cleaning and polishing, so this was just an initial foray. Plenty more for me to do whenever we are next held up by weather and I am “hot to trot”
Mike
39 21.944 N, 75 58.905 W
No comments:
Post a Comment