Feb 20 - Still waiting to cross ... maybe Tuesday?

Sunday, February 20

Even though we've been enjoying several days of wonderful Florida weather, the fact that we're "waiting for weather" is never far from our hearts and minds. We check the forecasts several times a day and have at least two phone calls a day with our 'buddy boaters' to compare forecast notes. 

The weather cycle repeats itself every 3-4 days, so it's tempting to look backward, at the crossings we "could have made" but didn't b/c we were unsure of conditions at the time.  We are in a high pressure system now and a crossing looked good from Friday thru Monday.  So we figured that Saturday, 2/19, was a good compromise ... and a full moon.  The winds were predicted to be light and the seas calm even though it was a north wind (that will push against the gulfstream), moving to a NE wind (which will come directly over our bow).  We thought Friday looked good too, but one more day would only help the offshore swells lay down.  However, on Saturday, the north wind did not stay under 10 knots; instead gusting to 20 knots throughout the afternoon.  Our buddy-boat, s/v Kismet, went offshore 2 miles to run their engines (after being in the marina for a month), and they came it saying that the seas were much rougher than the 2-4ft swell predicted.  Things continued to deteriorite when we discovered that the winds in the Bahamas were going to be 25-30knots when we arrived at our anchorage on Sunday (winds that weren't predicted to arrive until late Monday).. 

So, even though we were soooo sure that Saturday night was our window to cross, we changed our minds after the 5pm weather report came in ... and we spent the rest of the evening thinking that "Friday was the day we should have crossed!". 

s/v Kismet. Anchored next to us in the channel. Passport40

What now?  Back to the forecasts and pick another day.  And Tuesday, Feb 22, is looking good. 

Unfortunately, our friend Mikel arrives in the Bahamas on Wednesday ... so no chance now that we'll be there when he arrives.  If we do make the crossing on Tuesday, we'll be two days behind him. Eck!  Like I said before, fortunately Mikel is a flexible kinda guy ... and fortunately, there are inter-island ferries, so he can take a 30min ferry to reach us at Green Turtle Cay on Thursday., where we will clear customs.  I think we are on back-up plan #10 with Mikel, because if a Tuesday crossing doesn't happen, then our next option is to sail down to Ft Lauderdale and pick him up there, and he'll join the "waiting-to-cross" dance with us!

Fingers are crossed for Tuesday

P.S.
And to add insult to injury, last nite as we dinghied back to Maja after spending the evening with Hank and Carol on s/v Kismet, the water was oily calm ... not a ripple ... not a breathe of wind.  Hard to fathom that somewhere out in the dark the wind was blowing 20 knots!