High pressure in north bothers us in the south - knock it off!!!

Well, it’s Monday at 3:00pm and we are on the boat, sitting. The wind is a constant 25-30mph with gusts over 40mph, all out of the north. Today is Sunny but that is expected to change. The wind is supposed to stay high until Tuesday or Wednesday night. All bets are that we will be able to travel again on Thursday. Today we walked to West Marine to get the chart books for the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware River, and the route to New York and Long Island. I didn’t get these earlier just in case we didn’t get this far. We should need them in the next 2 weeks - maybe sooner. There are several other boats stuck in the marina with us. At least our slip is still available to us because almost no one is traveling either way on the ICW. The canvas is taking a beating but I can’t take it down because of all the equipment that we have above deck. The boat was 60 degrees this morning - the coldest that it has been. But we still haven’t broken out the cold weather gear in its entirety. We are safe, relatively comfortable, and have amenities that ease the boredom. We just want to get moving. It is a change in my viewpoint since the beginning of the trip. At first, I wanted to stay in port because it was safe and familiar, now I want to get going so that we can see new places and, also, get closer to home. The anxiety of always traveling in unfamiliar waters is greatly diminished. Whatever comes, we’ll deal with it. Having said that, I do have some worries about traversing Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds. Both sounds are large and shallow stir up easily in a wind. The guidebooks all state that they are dangerous in a wind over 20 knots. We haven’t seen anything less than that it many days. On both of the sounds we have to traverse at least 25 miles of open water. The Albemarle is supposed to be the worst stretch, potentially, of the entire ICW. Once we get moving, Pamlico Sound is 2 days away and Albemarle Sound, 3 days. We’re not going to take any chances with the weather - that is the one thing that we are acutely studying and learning more about each day. This boat hates any kind of rough, or even choppy, seas. It seems very light and, hit a wave wrong, it bangs down hard. Besides, I don’t want to upset Cory, lying at my feet, while we move. Ken

Linda here- We took a long walk in the sun & wind to shops. I finally found a pair of rubber boat boots to replace Dave’s Boy Scout camp boots that lace up the front. I’ve been wearing those (for really wet conditions) since at least 1992!!! I used to really like the wind. Now I know that what I like is a BREEZE. The strong wind is tiring because of windburn, and the noise becomes wearing. The few seconds that it dies down makes you appreciate the silence. As complaining as that sounds, I know it could get much worse. The next 2 days will be rainy- at least today we have sun. People are very friendly and everyone wants to know what kind of dog Cory is. Right now he’s a TIRED dog after our long walk! Love to all- Linda
PS- it is now 5:00pm and we have the new weather - calls for gale force winds through Wednesday with the worst of the storm tomorrow - oh boy! We won’t be going anywhere for a few days.



Linda is holding her hair down, while in the background is the ICW of Wrightsville Beach facing southerly. All the boats are facing the north wind which is currently blowing at 25-30mph. We know that the wind is below 34 mph constant because the drawbridge, upon which we are standing, is still being opened for the rare boat traffic. Yesterday the drawbridge was closed.

The ICW looking north - where we long to be going.