Chanelling the Weather

Beaufort 

We needed a good night's sleep to face today's conundrum: how do we deal with this crazy weather? Not only did we have to plan around today's storms, but the arrival of an even bigger storm on Tuesday. Rain began to fall around 7:15, but by 9:00 had stopped. Barry and I decided to go for a walk around the large boatyard complex while it was dry. The temperature had risen overnight to be almost pleasant. I'll definitely take sweatshirt weather in January. We walked along rows of large yachts that did not require any camera tricks to appear huge. Even the new set of stainless steel anchors was impressive. Large sportfishers lined up from one end of the yard to the other.

It is always interesting to look at other boats and especially larger boats. A 63-foot Nordhavn trawler sported a feature that I am quite envious of. There is a tube extending from the bow that automatically washes off the anchor chain before it reaches the deck. The next line of rain caught up with us and we returned to Crossroads a bit damper than we left. Once onboard we began weather and destination planning. At one point we had decided to leave in half an hour and try to get ahead of the storm. I readied the interior for departure as Barry went to the office to check out. He returned and reported that the wind was gusting in the 30s and we were just going to stay here for the next few days. We are safe and secure and no marina further south seemed to be a better option. We relaxed and had lunch while trying to process this lengthy delay. At 1:00 we were again in a rain hiatus so out we went for another tour of the boatyard. The highlight of this walk was an up-close look at the massive 300-metric ton Travelift next to a shrimp boat on blocks. The tires on the lift are over six feet tall (Barry is standing next to one).

We also spotted a shiny new propeller. It would have glistened in the sun if the sun was shining. The wind had definitely picked up and the gusts had Barry holding on to both his hat and shirt. The flag along the ICW dock snapped stiff. Heavy rain moved back across the area and I found a few ball games to occupy my afternoon. Barry opened up some floor panels to make sure all was good. Disappointed by the effort of the Cavaliers, I pulled out a book-in-progress that I had brought aboard and made quick work of that remaining few pages. The high winds will continue tomorrow so I'm pretty confident that more ball games and the anticipated start of new book will be on the agenda.