Well, there are a few projects still to do on
our repairs (like our final paint job), but
we have escaped from Key West at last! We left (with supporting crew members Laurie
Sampson and Beth Perry) on May 4th, and now I'm writing to you from the navigation station while at the
dock in Charleston, South Carolina.
We have stopped here for two days to pick up new
supporting crew member Mike White (from Ontario, Canada!) and to get better
weather that comes tomorrow.
The sail from Key West was quite nice, although we
did a lot of motoring....which is slow but certainly better than beating
against tradewinds. Just as we were approaching Charleston we were
attacked by the Mother of all Squalls".
"Uh...think we should reef?"
If you didn't answer correctly, you would have been
rather severly punished in the 40+ knot winds and torrential rain that soon
slammed us a couple minutes after these pics were taken. Fortunately I'm
the careful sort and had put in an extra reef and rolled up the jib just before
it hit. FYI, the pics don't do the storm justice at all...the cloud was
quite imposing as it swooped down, preceded by a spectacular lightning show that
was hard to appreciate while worrying about being hit by one of the
bolts.
Earlier in the trip in in nicer weather, our
valiant crew of Laurie and Beth:
And a special guest was happy to peck out some
text messages on my
phone ("Hi babe, I'm on my way north!"):
We'll be leaving tomorrow for New York and North
Cove Marina in Manhattan...don't forget to check out the website for info on our
sailing programs there!
Happy to be sailing again..., |
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