Pressing Pause

This week, I’ve been really stressing about getting everything ready to go. Our original plan was to leave as soon as Chris got back from New York. Normally I would have been ok with this, even though we’d be cutting it close to sunset and the ebb (outgoing) current would be running decently. But we’ve got a lot of stuff not working right now, and the weather will deteriorate as the weekend progresses. Without working heads (toilets) or autopilot, a 200 mile offshore passage in less than ideal conditions would be a lot.

The weather isn’t supposed to be terrible (otherwise we wouldn’t have even considered going), but forecasts call for around 20kts on the nose, building slightly with higher gusts. Beating into the wind is slow, so it extends our passage time, which also means we’re more likely to see bigger winds as the weather deteriorates later in the day on Sunday. Plus, the Gulf Stream runs right up to the coast down by West Palm Beach. That means we can’t carry a tack very far out, because the farther we go the more foul current we face, which would further slow our progress.

Instead, we’ve decided to spend an extra week (or more if weather doesn’t cooperate) in St. Augustine. The plan is to get at least the heads, and hopefully the autopilot, working. Then when weather allows, we’ll continue south to West Palm Beach, where we’ll get our watermaker fixed and then start to look for our weather window to cross. It means we won’t be able to head to the Bahamas until after the new year, but it also means that we’ll be in better shape for our next passage and that it will be more enjoyable. It was a tough decision, but in the end, it felt like we were pushing for all the wrong reasons.