We seem to be getting stuck in one place more and more often recently.  It seems that when we pull into a marina we tend to stay longer.  When we are anchoring overnight its easy to pull the anchor in the morning and get going.  Also when we are in the marinas life seems to be a lot more hectic - there is always things to do like shopping, schooling, laundry etc.  Its like we are back in the real world for a spell.  At anchor we are still in the cruising mode.  Also the cost of staying ion the marinas is substantially more.  When we were in Maine we went for a period of about 6 weeks without going into a marina but now we can't get away from them.

We are still in Charleston and the lovely weather we had on our arrival has deserted us.  It lasted about two days - just long enough for us to think we had cracked it - and then vanished.  So we need to continue to push on South.  We had always anticipated staying for 4 or 5 days but it will be 7 or 8 by the time we leave.  Still its been pretty good fun.

The downtown area of Charleston is beautiful.  Its very clean and the old buildings are very well preserved.  The main walking street, King Street, is lined with palm trees and is full of small boutique stores and restaurants and lots of art galleries and studios.  The place has a really great feel to it when you walk around.  We liked it so much that we bought our first painting for the boat here which shows a Charleston street scene.  Its now hanging in the guest cabin.  We spent an afternoon and evening wandering the streets on the day that the weather broke.

The next day we took a trip out to one of the old plantation homes called Boone Hall.  Its been a plantation for around 400 years and was started when Charles II was giving out land grants to “deserving” english gentry.  Obviously it used to use slaves to work the fields back in the 1700’s and all the slave cottages are still standing.  It was a really interesting tour and I think it was great for the kids to see, especially Sam who as part of his school work is reading a book on the deep south during the time of segregation and the civil rights movement.  We listened to a couple of different talks and had a tour around the plantation fields.  The plantation house itself was not as grand as we thought it would be although the interior was furnished with period furniture from the US, France and the UK and looked beautiful.  The centrepiece to Boone Hall is the driveway which is what you imagine a plantation house driveway to be.  Its must be close to 300m long and lined with  live oak trees which were planted close to 200 years ago.  The branches have all met at the top and are festooned with Spanish Moss (which, by the way as we learned is not Spanish and not a moss).  The effect is very stunning as you can see from the photo.

Driveway to Boone Hall

Boone Hall Plantation Home

The next stop was Savannah.  We hired a car and drove south into Georgia the next day.  The original intention was to sail there but there is a long river passage to get to Savannah from the Atlantic coast and limited berthing once there so taking on advice from others we decided an overland excursion was called for.  Savannah is stunning.  The city is laid out around a whole bunch of squares with statues or fountains as a centrepeice.  The historic district houses are gorgeous and full of history from the first settlers, the indians, the revolution and the civil war.  In addition its been used as a film set for numerous famous films one of which was Forrest Gump.  So its a really interesting place to just wander around.  We stayed overnight in Savannah and Nic and Scott even got to go out to dinner on their own - again - I think thats twice now since we started.

Even the downpipes in Savannah are interesting

Not sure if this is THE Forrest Gump bench but its the right square

We wish we had more time here because its such an interesting area and the people are super friendly.  Would recommend anyone holidaying in the US to visit.

We are back in Charleston now contemplating the weather and the next sail.  A friend of ours Gayle who Scott met while at Harvard is going to sail with us to just south of Jacksonville to a place called St Augustine.  Gayle lives in Jacksonville and so is driving up today to join us onboard.  She has a wee boy called Cameron and Calley is so excited at the prospect of having someone along to play with.  Unfortunately the weather is still a bit lousy - rain and wind 20 to 25kts - due to a stalled weather system.  We will be sailing overnight and may delay departure until Tuesday to hopefully get a more comfortable ride. Then Gayle has been kind enough to invite us to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family on Thursday which will be great.  We plan to stay around St Augustine for a few more days to look around and to catch an Eddie Vedder concert which we managed to snag some tickets for.

Looks like we have also nailed down our plans for X-mas primarily due to the efforts of our sister in law Diana.  We will be meeting up with Scotts family in the Bimini Islands in the Bahamas.  Diana managed to find a house with a dock outside it which is big enough to take Dulcinea.  So we now have a date and destination to aim for and look forward to.

PS  Just got Calley’s test results back and she aced it.

PPS.  Just reorganised the tools onboard the ship so they now stow on the back of the engine room door.  Just have to show you all, the results.  Graeme - take a look as you may want to incorporate something similar on your tug.

Here Comes the Sun

Sunshine Morning

Had to show the above photo first on this post.  Its about an hour after sunrise in Charleston, South Carolina and we are at the marina sitting in the cockpit in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the glorious sunshine.  Man what a difference a few hundred miles makes.  There would be a 20 deg F temperature difference from Norfolk.  We are moored in a place called Charleston Harbour Marina which when we pulled in yesterday had dolphins swimming around inside.  The marina is in a great location; downtown Charleston is only a water taxi away, the USS Yorktown, a old aircraft carrier, is parked next to the marina and we have a view of Fort Sumter which was the location of the start of the civil war.  So this is the neighbourhood for the next week.

  

Dan Meggitt 

We ended up departing Norfolk around 4pm on Wednesday (8th Nov).  It was still blowing hard and the forecasting service had advised an early morning departure but we felt confident and did not want to lose the wind too early..  Our passage crew member arrived mid afternoon.  His name is Dan Meggitt and we got in contact via a website forum.  This was the first time we had taken crew who we did not know onboard and so there was some concern as to how they would fit in.  We had got a reference but still that is only worth so much.  Am sure Dan had similar concerns about who he was to be sailing with as he had no chance to get any references or see the boat..  Turns out we had nothing to worry about.  Dan is a certified skipper and has completed a solo circumnavigation about 10 years ago onboard a 32ft  boat so sailing wise he is was more than competent but he was also a really nice guy and we all got on very well.  Dan lives in Beaufort in North Carolina so he drove up to Norfolk to join us.

Once Dan was onboard and had been shown around the boat and Nic had got her last Starbucks we headed off.  It took us about 4 hrs to motor out of the harbour, across the Chesapeake entrance into open water.  Once there we tried to set the main but the wind was almost directly behind and so it was tricky to hold our course without gybing.  We pulled down the main and set the genoa.  There was a fair sea running and so we were rolling more than was ideal but we were making 8kts so could not complain.

We rounded the Cape Hatteras Mark at around about 9 o’clock in the morning with it still blowing 20kts and set a course SW towards Charleston.  That was the hard part of the sail completed and it seemed like after that the weather just gave up.  By 8 o’clock that evening the wind had died and we had to put the engine on.  The weather stayed light for the rest of the trip which mean’t we motored for approx 36hrs to reeach Charleston around 0830 on the Sunday.  Total distance covered was approx 400NM.  This was a big milestone for us.  There are certain sections of the trip which you know are going to test you more that others and this was the biggest of those in the the US but as it turned out it wasn't as bad as we thought.  With this completed we can enjoy the remainder of the US but obviously not relax too much.

Dolphins playing in the bow wave

Dolphins playing in the bow wave

The above photos shows some dolphins which surfaced near us on day two of the trip.  There was about half a dozen of them and they swam around the boat for a bit and then played at the bow for a couple of minutes before breaking off and disappearing.  Its always great to see dolphins and especially the kids were absolutely amazed at seeing them and being so close to them at the bow.  It looked like they would roll over on their sides to get eye contact.

Having Dan onboard made such a difference.  That extra person just gave us that bit more coverage and sleep and he was really easy going.  The way we organised it was that Sam and Nic did a 4 to 8 watch, Dan drew the short straw with the 12 to 4 watch and Scott did the 8 to 12 watch.  All in all it worked pretty well.  There was overlap particularly during the day but you could get enough rest and Nic was on for breakfast and dinner time.  The first night is the worst until you get used to the routine.  Sam did great getting up for all his watches.  It was really interesting speaking to Dan about his sailing trip as much of the route we are doing is the same.  He gave us some reassurance regarding transiting the Panama Canal and crossing the Pacific.

Dan and Sam getting Fenders ready

We have decided that we will probably be looking for someone to join as crew from Panama.  Whoever it is will need to be able to stand a watch on their own and hopefully help with teaching the kids.  Thats our ideal crew member anyway, although the most important aspect is compatability.  We were really lucky with Dan.

We will spend the next few days exploring Charleston and may even range as far as Savannah before pushing onto Florida.  Not too sure if that will be another overnight sail or if we can stop overnight along the coast.  We are hoping that a friend of ours Gayle from Jacksonville will be able to join us with her small boy for that trip.

Just want to say thanks to our friends who are staying in touch by posting comments on the blog, particularly Aunt Margaret & Uncle Ian and Steve & Julie - we love hearing from you :)

Waiting at Norfolk

So we made it safely to Norfolk and are now moored at the Waterside Marina waiting for the weather to turn to allow us to head to Charleston.  From last post we had a couple more days on the water to get to Norfolk - man that Chesapeake Bay is big!  One day was sailing entirely with the wind gusting over 30kts.  We set deep reefed main and staysail and the boat was very comfortable.  We anchored once more overnight at a sheltered bay off the main Chesapeake waterway and got up the following day (Sunday), to the wind having dropped to less than 10kts forcing us to motor the final 5hrs leg into Norfolk.

I think I am right in saying that Norfolk is the centre for the US Navy.  There are a number of other key areas around the country but this is one of the, if not the, primary ports.  Here there is Norfolk itself and also Portsmouth which is across the Elizabeth River.  For all intents and purposes its one big city with the Naval base making up a large part of it.  As we lined up on Hampton Roads to enter the shipping channels an active naval vessel was coming in behind us from the Atlantic.  It was far enough away that we did not have to maneuver away but close enough to see as it steamed in behind us and then was met by tugs firing water cannon and finally as it docked at the Naval slips .  The naval ships are pretty awesome to see on the water even if you have to stay at least 500m away.  There are warships all around the docks.  Coming into the inner reaches of the harbor is a large naval dockyard with grey ship after grey ship lined up along numerous jetties jutting out into the harbor channel.   The first two ships we saw were aircraft carriers and then there are all manner of frigates, destroyers and support vessels.  It is very impressive and you can see why the US is considered the world superpower.  

We continued along the entrance channel down the river.  Norfolk is also a busy commercial port with bulk carriers and cruise liners moving around.  Its about 10 miles from the start of Hampton Roads into the marina which is located right beside the downtown area.   We motored through the various channels to get to the marina gawking at the ships lining the waterway.  It is always very interesting approaching a new city from the water.  At the marina we were directed to a berth on the outside wall of a jetty and tied up just in front of an old three masted schooner.  The marina location is fantastic and we had a look around downtown Norfolk for the first day, after some school of course.  The town was quiet but its a really pleasant place and very neat and tidy.  Believe this is where Douglas MacArthur was from.  There is also  a huge mall within walking distance so Nic is extremely happy.  We ended up at the mall and while we were in the Apple Store saw Stevie Wonder – obviously had to explain to the kids who this guy was.  Let me tell you even famous personalities get bald and put on weight as they grow old!  The Apple Stores in the states are always mobbed.  There would be twenty support staff and if you have a technical question you have to book a slot to see one of these guys.  But the whole feel of the place is like a computer club.  It is incredible how Apple have managed to foster this and it’s the same at every store we have been to. 

Norfolk Mermaids

The next day after more school we went to the Nauticus Centre which is the Naval museum here in Norfolk about 5 minutes walk away.  Great museum with loads of exhibits that interested the kids but also plenty of history on the American Navy from the Revolution to present time.  The centrepiece is the battleship Wisconsin which is just spectacular.  It has not been long decommissioned and was actively involved in the bombardments during both Gulf Wars.  One thing about the States is that the opportunities to see things like this is fantastic especially for the kids.  We finished off the day with dinner and a film – first time in a cinema since July.

Bow of the Wisconsin

AB's Sam and Calley

Kids at Nauticus

We have two days left now to see a couple more sights, to do some laundry and provisioning and get ready for the sail to Charleston.   The trip around to Charleston will be the longest consecutive leg yet at around 450Nm.  This will entail spending 3 nights out at sea.  We have decided to take on a crew member for the trip to share the load of the night watches.  It should make a huge difference.  His name is Dan Meggit and he joins us later today.  He is from Beaufort in North Carolina and seems to be pretty experienced.  Its interesting looking for crew because there is a certain dynamic that needs to work as its such a close space and I guess this is even more relevent when its a family sailing.  You just have to rely on how he sounds on the phone and any references you can get.  He would be in a similar situation though noit knowing what the baot or crew are like.  The kids especially Calley very interested in this development.  In addition to taking on crew another added precaution we have taken for this leg is to contact a weather routing service.  These guys will, for a small fee, analyse the weather and give you the optimum departure time and if necessary routing directions.  There is a storm system moving up from south so currently we are waiting for that to pass over today and should be looking at a Thursday pm or Friday am departure.  The marina if filling up with other boats waiting to do the same.

Did we mention it is bitterly cold now.  Drops to 4 deg during the night.  This was definitely not in the brochure!

Saw these two on a passing boat

Farewell Annapolis

Left Annapolis yesterday heading for Norfolk in Virginia.  Its always good to leave a place especially after being stuck there for a while.  Annapolis was a nice town - not too big and everything was close enough for us to walk to.  Interesting fact is that it was in Annapolis that Kunta Kinte from Roots fame was landed way back in the 1700's.

We tidied up the boat once the after effects of the Hurricane had subsided.  The most notable effect was the boat was covered in leaves.  It was as if we had been sailing through a forest!  It took us the best part of the day to reinstall all the deck gear but were delayed by the missing halyard for a few hours.  Both Nic and I took turns at the mast head in a bosuns chair trying to feed the messenger line down but it appeared to be getting stuck halfway down the mast somewhere because we could not see it at the bottom exit hole.  Eventually we had to give up and delay our departure for a day.

Annapolis after Sandy

Not as bad as it could have been

This is a memorial to Alex Halley - he is reading to kids who are not supposed to be swimming

It was about this point that I started wondering whether I had bitten off more than I could chew with the whole boat adventure.  Every now and then it kind of overwhelms you for a time and the frustration of the halyard had brought it on.  The issue for us is that when something goes wrong its always a first and we have a learning curve to go through to fix it which is very frustrating and takes time.  Next morning I got back up the mast head with a couple of new ideas.  It doesn’t help that it extremely cold at the moment from the back end of the hurricane.  After a couple of attempts we managed to see the line at the mast base, hook it and pull it through the opening (which is only the size of the rope).  It was great and the best thing was that the whole family had been wrapped up in this issue so we were all extremely happy and relieved.  We installed the Genoa on the roller furling and continued tidying up.  Nic and the kids went into town for some essential supplies and a last look around.

Thursday morning we left around 10:00 and motored into the bay.  The forecast was NW 10 to 15Kts gustuing 25Kts so pretty blustery conditions.  We set a double reef in the main and a full Genoa as we were on a broad reach.  Once out on the bay proper we reefed the Genoa also.  The boat took off doing an average of 9kts and was hitting 10kts at times.  Very exhilarating sailing which drew compliments over the radio from one passing motor vessel.  Shortly after, the wind was gusting over 20kts regularly and so we swapped the genoa for the staysail to settle the boat down still making 7 or 8 kts which was very timely as we were getting regular gusts close to 30kts.  It is however very cold sailing in these conditions.

We pulled in to shore part way down the bay and anchored overnight.  We will take off tomorrow and stop once more before we get to Norfolk.  Once at Norfolk we have to wait for a weather window for us to make the big passage to Charleston.  We have contacted a professional weather routing service to try and give us the best shot at this.  The real incentive is the temperature - we were debating whether to bring doona’s over when we were packing in Singapore and eventually settled on thin ones for all the bunks.  Now we all sleep with two doonas and when anchored or in port have the heating on.  The temperature here at the moment is around 10 to 12 deg C.  This should nearly double once we get down to Charleston to a very reasonable 20 deg C.  We have all had enough of the cold.  The boat is really a warm weather adventure and it is set up to be outside.

Calley at school

Safe and Sound

Got up this morning to abated winds and only a slightly higher tide than normal which is still below the level of the jetty we are moored to.  Crew is doing well and were not particularly put out by the weather.  Nic’s first comment this morning was “is that it?”  So all in all we are pretty relieved and it seems we have come through unscathed.  Still need to have a good look at the boat but from first impressions it seems to have weathered the storm well.  Many thanks for all the messages that were sent enquiring as to our safety.

Seems we were luckier than some.  There is quite a bit of devastation along the NJ shoreline and in New York due primarily to the flooding and some people have been killed.  Where my brother lives the power is out and there are a few trees down.  We saw maximum gusts around the 55kts to 60 kts range which was probably due to the fact we were on the “good” side of the hurricane.  On the other side (the NY side) the winds would have been much worse given the direction the storm was moving.  There was a three masted sailing ship (replica of the Bounty) which has been sunk off North Carolina with one person dead and one missing.

Yesterday was one of those days which reminded me of rainy days during camping holidays where you zip yourself in and  listen to the wind and rain outside hoping that the tent will not collapse.  We spent the day playing games with the kids, watching a bit of TV, catching up on paperwork (yes we still have some) and getting some schoolwork done.  The kids did really well throughout and remained pretty relaxed through the whole ordeal.  Their main concern is the concentrated period of schoolwork and lack of escape.  Forgot to mention in earlier blogs that we got Sam’s first test results back and they were pretty good.  A couple of subjects need some attention but all in all it was a good effort despite the handicap of their teaching staff.

Today its still pretty cold and dreary so will not do too much apart from tidy up down below, more school and make a start on getting the boat re rigged and all the storm gear put away.  We do have one issue to address.  When we were removing the big genoa the halyard (line that pulls the sail up) messenger line got away and as a result we now do not have a halyard to hoist the sail.  The halyard runs internally in the mast and so as soon as possible someone has to go up to the mast head and try and feed another line down while someone at the bottom “fishes” for the line.  It will be a bit tedious but hopefully not insurmountable.

Planning to head out of Annapolis on Thursday bound for Norfolk where we will hole up for as long as it takes to await a favourable weather window to allow us to make the transit around Cape Hatteras down to Charleston.  This will be the longest sail for us yet (around 400NM) and probably involve three days and two nights at sea.  Both Nic and Scott have concerns regarding the fatigue issues over the multiple night sails but somehow we have to find a way to cope given the passages which we have coming up.

Waiting for Sandy

Have spent the last 24 hrs trying to get ready for the approaching storm both mentally and physically.

Started yesterday by turning the boat in the pen so that the bow would be facing into the forecast weather and getting lines ready.  We had been debating how far to go with preparations but by lunchtime decided to do everything we possibly could to minimise the windage - the area presented to the wind.  

Started by removing the bimini (which is the cover over the cockpit.  Even though it sits horizontal it provides a huge area if the wind gets underneath it.  It is lashed along four sides and is heavy synthetic canvas so was a major effort to remove.  Next big job was to remove the headsails from the roller furling gear on the foredeck.  The first sail we tackled was the big Genoa.  This is a huge, extremely stiff sail which you would normally handle with two or three burly crewmen so for us it was a bit of a challenge but we managed to get it flaked on deck and lashed up.  Luckily the wind was pretty light at that stage.  Nic and Sam did a fantastic job.  The sail is that big that it is just sitting on the foredeck lashed down because it is too big to move aft or to store below.  Next we brought down the staysail which is smaller and more manageable.  This one we tied up and stuffed into the top bunk in Sam’s cabin.  

Dulcinea awaiting Sandy 

Port side - expected weather side

This morning we moved to a different pen with fixed piles on both sides which will be better for us.  Once moved we had to run the various lines out to the piles to secure us.  We currently have 11 mooring lines running from the boat to the dock - 2 bow lines, 3 spring lines, 2 stern lines, a spare bow line, a spare stern line and 2 spare spring lines.  In addition we have some spare lines in the cockpit if needed.  We have lines made up on all the available deck cleats and then three lines made up around the deck winches.  Where possible halyards have been removed and replaced with smaller messenger lines and all the loose gear on deck has been removed.  The dingy has been removed and even that is sitting with a three point mooring off the stern.

Now its a question of waiting.  There are a few other boats tied up and riding out the storm.  Some have left to find shelter elsewhere.  This was not really an option for us given our draft.  Some it looks like are staying on moorings in the inner harbour and I see at least one yacht anchored out.  The latest forecast still has a landfall probably around the Atlantic City area which is about 100 miles away.  Still the following is the forecast for our area

Sunday night - North 25 to 30kts with gusts to 50kts

Monday - North 35 to 45 kts with gusts to 65 kts

Monday night - Northwest 40 to 50kts with gusts to 65 kts

Tuesday - Southwest 30 to 40 kts with gusts to 60 kts

Tuesday night - Southwest 30 to 40 kts becoming 25 to 30 kts after midnight

Then there is the rainfall and the storm surge which will be pushing in.  With our location the storm surge shouldn’t be too bad????

So we have a 48 hr period to get through starting tonight.  Its quite nerve racking waiting for the winds and we are all a bit anxious.  There have been a few 25kt gusts and the boat strains at its lines so not too sure how we will go with the 65kt gusts.  Hoping that the kids especially Calley will not get too scared once the wind starts.  Still we believe we have done all that we can and will have to wait and see how we go.  We will hunker down and try and get some schoolwork done.  There was an option for Nic and the kids to go ashore to a hotel but they have courageously elected to stay onboard.

Calley's fabulous Georgetown Cupcakes birthday cake

Annapolis, Washington and the frankenstorm

We are sitting in Annapolis where we have been for the best part of last week.  The weather forecast shows a huge storm brewing in the Atlantic so we have delayed our departure for a few days.  More of that later.

We arrived in Annapolis last Friday after motoring down from our last anchorage in the Sassafras River.  It was a pretty uneventful journey in calm weather.  We pulled into Annapolis in the evening and anchored just off the town.  We had arranged to meet Scott’s brother Lars and his son Ross and spend the weekend sailing.  As we were anchoring the wind picked up (seems to be a usual scenario now) and kept blowing 20 to 25kts.  Annapolis is a very busy sailing and naval town and there were hundreds of sail boats zipping about as we were trying to maneuver.  Lars and Ross transferred out to the boat from a water taxi and we settled down for the night.  Ross was extremely apprehensive as Uncle Scott had decreed an electronic free weekend.

Calley whooping Lars at Backgammon

Next morning was beautiful warm weather with clear blue skies.  We left Annapolis heading for a secluded anchorage on the other side of the Chesapeake.  Again very little wind and after trying to sail for a while we resorted to the engine eventually pulling into a beautiful bay around 4 o’clock.  By this time the kids were beside themselves without their precious DS’s so we said jokingly that if they swam around the boat they could get 30 minutes of electronic time.  Amazingly they were all in the water in no time.  Calley and Sam are used to swimming off the boat so for them it was no major apart from the cold but Ross did incredibly well getting up his nerve.  When you are in the water looking at the boat the sides look extremely sheer and forboding so he did really well.  The whole episode was pretty funny - its amazing what kids will do for electronic time although further similar deals were met with very little enthusiasm thereafter.

Kids preparing to get 30mins electronic time

Story time with Uncle Lars

Next day was perfect - 10 to 15kts NW, blue skies and warm.  We pulled up the anchor and sailed back to Annapolis with Lars doing a fine job helming for almost the whole way.  Back in Annapolis we parked the boat at the Yacht Basin marina, tied up and went for a beer and bite to eat.  Lars and Ross then departed for New York.  The Dulcinea crew had a busy week lined up visiting the sights in Washington DC.  The plan was to have four days in DC, then celebrate Calley’s birthday on the Friday and then take off further south on Saturday. 

Washington DC is an amazing place.  The first day we walked the National Mall, saw the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and visited the Capitol Building where we got into both the senate and representatives viewing galleries.  It was awesome.  Washington was a real surprise - the whole centre is comprised of grand 19th century style buildings housing museums, galleries and government departments.  It is certainly a fitting capital for a superpower.  The place is very clean and there are lots of trees in the middle of changing colour.  We cannot recommend Washington highly enough - it’s really a must see at some point in your life.

Lincoln Memorial

As close as we got to the White House

Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill 

We had Wednesday off but apart from that spent the time visiting a few of the museums (which are all free) and looking at some of the other buildings including the Whitehouse.  The number of museums is staggering - the Smithsonian alone has 19 different museums and then there are art galleries, libraries, etc.  On Thursday Nic took us to Georgetown Cupcakes ( some of the ladies may be aware of the TV show) to pickup birthday cakes for Calley.

Georgetown Cupcakes

So here we are now on Friday.  It is Calley’s birthday so she was up pretty early and very excited.  She had a few presents and is spending the day playing with them.  We have cancelled any school today - not because we are nice but because we have a load of other things we need to attend to.  Annapolis is a pretty nice place.  Nic and I visited here last year when we were out scouting for boats but never got a chance to have a look around.

OK we got a bit closer

Yesterday Skip gave us the heads up on hurricane Sandy which was passing over eastern Cuba and the Bahamas.  It is forecast to travel offshore up the eastern coast of the US and then curl NW sometime after Cape Hatteras making a land fall somewhere between the Chesapeake and New England.  The problem with this storm as Skip explained is that there is also a trough over the US at the moment which will combine with Sandy and produce a very wide storm front so no matter where it goes the affected area will be huge - hence the media title of Frankenstorm.  Given this information we have delayed a departure until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.  The current forecast is showing maximum winds in our area of 65kts expected on Tuesday so we are all a bit apprehensive.  We are in a pretty good location but having never experienced this its pretty daunting.  We will be taking as many precautions as we can but in the end after clearing the decks and doubling up on the dock lines it will be a case of just waiting to see what happens. We are very  appreciative of Skip who is sending us regular updates and its good to have him to talk to about it.

Frankenstorm - We are located just at the end of the dotted line!