Monday, March 12, 2012

Marathon - Weather forecast change, leave on Tuesday?

A scene from Key West by Ann Sherer in pastels
All day long grib and NOAA coastal forecasts did not agree. Grib showed the winds moderating on Tuesday before increasing once again on Wednesday for the rest of the week. NOAA then changed their forecast to agree with grib this afternoon. The Weather Channel forecast remains out of sync. However, we've found grib to be generally accurate and when backed up by NOAA marine forecasts, it ought to be the one to bet on. So tonight we'll be watching the weather with great attention, on pins and needles so to speak. The final say will come with the 5:00 am forecast from both grib and NOAA coastal forecasts, then we'll make our final call on whether to go. In order to make the 75 mile trip, we have to leave at least by 7:00 am which is before the sun rises here, it will be dark. By the time we clear the harbor, there ought to be light.

Ann has been painting with her pastels and I thought I'd show her latest effort (see photo). The boat is less than ideal for painting but the cockpit is not too bad. There's enough room in general but not for a vertical easel that she's used to at home and there's not enough room for her to bring all her pastels. Still, she makes do,

Yeah! They had my part!
I was relieved to find out this morning that the local marine parts store (not WestMarine!) carried Volvo oil filters! I walked down and bought three just for good measure and now Fleetwing is ready to go. I'll get up around 5:30 am or so just to get everything ready and get the latest weather report. I'll run Hoolie into shore in the dark, he'll have a long day until his next relief. You can always follow our progress (or lack of it) by clicking on "Last 24 hours" under the heading of "Follow Fleetwing on Google Maps" on the left side of the blog site. It takes a few seconds to fully load but you'll be presented with a map of he keys with an icon representing Fleetwing's position updated every 10 minutes. We're headed for an anchorage off the west shore of Elliot Key, hopefully before dark.
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Tuesday 5:30am update, we didn't leave yet - weather change, now it's a Wednesday target date

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't find you on SPOT.....you must be in some "undisclosed location". Btw......cruisers
notes that I've read recently show heavy winds in the Exumas and in Roatan.............you are in good company waiting those high winds out.....

Liz