Did You Pack A Snow Shovel?

Beaufort     

The night was quite bouncey as the wind and current were in opposition, creating choppy waves on the Beaufort River. The sleet I heard on the cabin top roof during last night's blog posting was soon silenced, signaling a significant accumulation of the frozen mix. At today's first light I peered out a master port and saw the most unwelcome sight -- three inches of frozen white stuff on the dock. A quick trip around Crossroads looking out all the windows revealed that we were encrusted in a thick layer of ice. Icicles were growing from every vertical surface, including the tips of our windshield wipers. I did not open any doors as it felt like 19 degrees outside at 7:38. These conditions were exactly what we've been trying to escape.  

We kept watch on the ice-covered docks as blue sky returned accompanied by bright sunshine.

Thanks to the strong sun, melting began in earnest and our icicles grew longer and more plentiful. We still had no desire to go outside and survey the scene. Despite the sunshine, the temperature and wind chill had each dropped by 10:11. Knowing we had to eventually go outside and deal with the ice, I searched our supplies for anything that could be used to dig us out. A snow shovel was not part of our supplies provisioning. Today, our excavation tools would be a plastic dustpan and an OXO silicone turner. Barry bravely stepped onto the dock to check our Bimini and solar panels, and to adjust our docklines. 

Following lunch, Barry scooped out our cockpit as I went around and removed the lethal daggers threatening to impale us. I took over and carved out the remainder of our deck. The dust pan proved to be of limited help. Success was gained by chipping the ice into manageable portions and tossing them overboard. Some sections were more manageable than others. The final step was to sweep the decks with the broom to get as much water off as possible. As darkness fell, all liquid was again transitioning to ice. As I said the deck is clear. We do have a major issue to resolve tomorrow. The vertical portion of the Portuguese bridge is still buried under a quarter inch of ice, with a foot-deep accumulation of frozen mix at its base. As it stands now we cannot open the door to get onto the bow. The plan is to climb over the rail and scoop out the ice until that the door will open. I'm definitely not looking forward to that task, but once it is completed we will be able to depart for Florida. The only white I want to see after this is white sand beaches.