Waiting on a weather window

Here we are, five days into 2014 and getting a little too familiar with the boatyard where Wind-Lass has been laid up since March of last year. It's been 17 days since we got here (yes, I am counting) and most likely a full three weeks by the time we're able to cast off our lines and go. At this point, I'll just be glad if that timeline works out.

I could blame it on the weather, because that's the tangible reason we're still here. But the other part of this is human error (mine specifically) regarding how late in winter we planned to go...

because everyone who's not a rookie at this knows you don't try to head south so late in the season if you can help it. Live and learn, right?



We were ready* to go just after Christmas but since the yard was closed from Christmas Eve through the 2nd, we were forced to hunker down and wait until the boatyard workers returned so they could put Wind-Lass in the water. But when that day finally came on Friday, what had been mostly calm, comfortable weather  took a turn for the worse with strong winds and temperatures dropping to freezing. Suffice to say, we quickly scrapped plans to leave and agreed that it wasn't the best day to put our still new-to-us sailboat in the water and try to make it south down the Inter-Coastal Waterway.

In fact, it wouldn't even have been a good day to go if we'd owned the boat for decades. Around this area, North Carolina's southern Outer Banks, ICW waters are often shallow and subject to shoaling, with soft, sandy and/or muddy bottoms. Strong winds that would have made it more difficult to keep our big girl on course and those same winds were blowing in a direction that would have made the canal even more shallow.

To add to the equation, there are many snags- dead, fallen trees- ensconced in these banks and hitting one can mean major damage to a boat's hull or prop. Less water in the waterway means more chances of that and an increased likelihood of running aground.

And so, we've resigned to another near week of 'yard life until Mother Nature cooperates with our plans to get to warmer latitudes. Staying on the boat is actually pretty comfortable and in many ways I actually prefer it to the apartment we were renting before we left Juneau.

However, these surroundings aren't exactly what I was picturing for the beginning of January. And so we wait, with Scotty listening to the weather forecasts on our new handhelf VHF radio, while I stalk the Accu-weather like my life depends on it.

Bahamas or bust! (I hope it's the former.)

*Boat projects are endless, so ready means we were ready- now we've in the middle of more projects while we wait. Also, you're never truly ready for something like this. Like a lot of things in life, you just have to do it. Boats are a good source of a lot of useful lessons like that. :)