saturday morning, january 22, 2000

well the weather gods are not working our way this year. we are still (embarrassed) in oriental nc. after the holidays we scurried to get the boat ready for our first bluewater passage. we planned to leave beaufort nc for the british virgin islands, a trip that would take 10 days to 2 weeks. january is not the time of year to do this. we spent several weeks listening to the weather waiting for a suitable window. there is just front after front going through without break creating hazardous and wild conditions, especially around the gulf stream. this week two different systems had hurricane force winds.

we have since altered our plans. we now are going to continue down the intracoastal waterway, with coastal hops weather permitting, to fl and probably cuba, as originally planned. once we decided on this plan the inland weather turned bad. very high winds, cold and we even had snow. the cold is to continue at least through mid-week.

we are presently staying at this free dock. we could head out but have gotten spoiled by 70 degree weather from a few weeks ago, and do not feel like torturing ourselves with motoring in the cold. yes we are wooses and have become quite port lazy. we plan to wait for milder weather, then head south.

this week we have barely left the boat. john has started to work on his book again, and i made a raincatcher, and now am making a series drogue (a thing that is dragged from the stern to slow a boat in bad weather). it's a snug little world we live in, but i am anxious to leave, get moving, get south. i'm so tired of the cold though, getting to oriental we had lots of cold to brave, and when you are standing in the cockpit motoring all day it gets to you. charleston, sc beckons...

wednesday, january 26, 2000

hi gang. you got through y2k alright but beware, the largest ice cream cone maker in the u.s., ace baking, has just gone bankrupt. they made half of all the cones in north america. get rid of that bottled water and those y2k candles and start hoarding ice cream cones.

you must have heard of what's happening in the south. north carolina and surrounding states have declared a state of emergency. they've got the national guard out, digging people out of cars etc. we got more snow but nothing like what they've got inland. it is, however, cold as a well digger's ass. just heard, it's 24 hours after the snow and there are still people stuck in their cars.

after three weeks of truly atrocious weather offshore there is finally a three day period of lighter winds i.e. under 60 knots ha ha supposedly coming. but it's so darn cold, into the mid teens for the next three nights at least that we've decided that the danger of hypothermia and slipping on ice covered decks is just too great. so unless there is an unexpected warming, here we are.

meanwhile captain barker keeps showing up with more of his shrimp, which are the best we've ever had, and frozen strawberries he picked himself at the absolute peak of perfection, better than almost any fresh strawberries. we must have been very good in our previous lives. of course he keeps pointing out that this frigid weather is all coming from canada. but he seems to forgive us for that.

just got some horrible news. a guy left here for bermuda about two weeks ago singlehanded, taking a chance on the weather. glen and ulrike, his boat's name is sozhino don't know his name. anyway, he was run down by a greek tanker 100 miles west of bermuda. hull damage, dismasted. the ship left but came back 90 min later. they tried to get a line to him in 20 foot seas, 40 knot winds but couldn't. he tried to motor to bermuda with the tanker standing by. they ran on top of him in the night and did more damage and he couldn't pump out fast enough. by then he was 50 miles from bermuda and the bermuda pilot boat was able to come out and take him off. too many harrowing details to relate. he's very lucky to be alive.

so, safety first. we'll just hang out here for a while longer and live on shrimp and strawberries. tough life.

john and carol taioists in limbo

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