It’s nearly noon on Tuesday and we are underway and about 15 miles out from Nassau. It was unclear to me as I looked at the GRIB files this morning if it make more sense to leave today or to wait a day till the winds were a bit fresher. Yes, the wind direction was favorable but not that strong today and yet I hate to just sit around in Nassau. Besides, it’s entirely possible that we will actually run into unfavorable conditions later in the week up north if we wait in Nassau. It’s very hard to get a good weather window that lasts an entire week. So, with this in mind, we opted to leave.
Pandora needs about 10kts of apparent wind to move along at a respectable rate of speed and to wallow around with too little wind isn’t my cup of tea. BTW, GRIBs are computer derived wind predictions overlaid on a chart that suggest the wind direction and strength for a few days out. I can get these via my long range SSB radio or by cell when I am within range. Of course, once we are more than 5 miles from shore there isn’t any cell coverage. I also spoke with Chris Parker, our weather router, this morning and he agreed that while sailing, beginning on Wednesday, would likely be better, leaving a day later might lead to other weather problems later in the week.
It was my preference to get going today verses to wait another day and in spite of wind forecasts that suggested a bit better conditions on Wednesday. I am hopeful that we will get a bit more wind later today but for now we are motor sailing with the engine ticking along at a low RPM along with the sails. Fingers crossed that more wind will come soon. If I have to motor for a few days we will be forced to stop for fuel instead of going the entire way without stopping.
Yesterday my crew, Rick and Jim joined me in Nassau. It took much of the day to get the boat ready including fuel and water along with laundry and grocery shopping. I also took the dink off of the stern and stowed it on deck. I don’t like to have the dink on the davits off shore as there is too much risk that it might come loose if the wind kicks up. To have 250lbs of dink and motor thrashing around on the back of the boat could get dangerous. Better safe than sorry. Dink on board and tied down securely now. Check!
I will be posting most every day as we make our way up the coast and will send perhaps one small photo along with the text to Brenda so she can put it to my blog. We will also be “pushing the button” on our GPS transponder every four hours 24/7 so you can follow us on the site as we make our way north. Just go to the “where’s Pandora” button on the site’s homepage to see our most recent position.
The big question is if we will have good wind to make the entire run without stopping or if we will have to duck in somewhere to wait for more favorable conditions or to wait for a front to pass. So far, the winds seem to be barely adequate so it’s hard to say if we will stop or not. Of course, if the run were to take more than a week, we’d likely want to stop somewhere just to get a good night’s rest and perhaps pick up more fresh food.
Well, that’s about all I have to day for now. Alas, no photo worth sharing so I guess that 1,000 words will have to make up for that.
Here’s looking forward to fair winds. So far, fair but not enough. Oh well…