Update from West Palm Beach

We arrived into West Palm after way-too-many hours of motoring. I think the last time we actually sailed, like without the engine on at all, was for about an hour just south of Titusville where the wide and straight stretch of the ICW combined with just the right wind direction to allow us to pull out the jib and staysail and just fly along. On the trip across from Cape Fear to St Mary’s River, we had maybe a 3 hour segment where we had enough wind from the right direction to go diesel-less. We’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to just sail.

Sometimes, though, that’s what needs to happen to get the job done.

We’ve enjoyed a few social events with our friends Carolyn and Dave already. Carolyn is my podcast partner; she and her husband, Dave, are CLODs in West Palm Beach, just about 3 blocks from the dinghy dock here in the anchorage. As you might imagine from a taking-a-brief-land-break cruiser, she’s been amazing in offering car rides to the store, allowing the takeover of her laundry machines, and encouraging lingering showers. Their presence makes being in West Palm a good thing.

*Carolyn and I at the West Palm farmers market*

It looked for a brief minute like we were once again going to resort to being a stinkpotter to get across to the Bahamas. A teeny tiny weather window of light winds on the nose (but no north component) opened up this morning, and we got all excited about the prospect.

Until we looked at the longer-range forecast and saw (gasp) a possible spinny thing (aka hurricane) that could be threatening the Bahamas in 10 days. A few things went through our heads.

Go across to the Bahamas. Keep a close eye on the thing, push push pushing our way south and east as fast as possible (spoiler alert - not easy in forecast winds) and be prepared to flee back to Florida if needed.
Stay put. There’s another possible window opening (a shorter, though similar conditions, window) on Thursday. This gives the spinny thing a couple more days to figure out its plan.

Other items to consider.

The Bahamas really does not have good places to hide from a spinny thing. Yes, this one looks like it would affect the Northwest Bahamas more than areas further south and east, but still there’s the “where to hide” conundrum.
This spinny thing would be approaching from the south and WEST, meaning the bad side of the storm would be the eastern side. Where would we be? On the eastern side. Not good.
(less important but still a consideration) We have a survey scheduled for Tuesday. This is a boat inspection, as it were, required for the insurance policy we’re hoping to get secured so we can go into a marina or boatyard. Our current insurance policy doesn’t cover us outside of the US. We could easily cancel the survey (it could cost us more money than the actual survey to cancel, BTW) but we still need to get one down the road.

Why the conundrum? This doesn’t sound like it’s a rocket science kind of question. Ah, but here’s the rub.

We’re planning on using the Bahamas as a waypoint, a quick stopover en route to Panama. This does not sound push-worthy. Who wants to race through the Bahamas? Except when you factor in the Christmas Winds, enhanced trade winds that scream on an East-West path that make the Wicked Witch’s broom rides look like something on a kiddie ride at the carnival. Think 25-30 knots of wind, blowing constantly for days at a time. Across endless stretches of ocean. Which pushes the water into lovely towering waves. We’d rather get to Panama before we have to contend with this phenomenon, which historically start being a factor in early December. Ugh.

Common sense around current conditions prevailed over anxiety around the winds down the line. Between the MIO (misery is optional) mindset we try to follow and the reality that choosing to be in a a spinny thing in the Bahamas would be a VERY.BAD.IDEA, we made the less-difficult-than-imagined decision to stay put.

We’re reorganizing for the hundredth time. Stowing the cold weather clothing and blankets since it’s still summer here (and we’re EVENTUALLY PLEASE GOD SOON going further south). Enjoying time with friends. The surveyor is coming tomorrow as scheduled. Carolyn and I will record another podcast or two together.

That’s our update. You can follow along on our tracker if you like.