Too Much, Too Little, Pineapple Pineapple

At Sea
25 53.12 N 81 52.94 W

We were prepared to depart for Marathon this morning. According to the forecast, a cold front should pass mid morning and after that two days of north winds. Perfect.

Before leaving I listened to the local NOAA weather report. It said a low of 41F(5C), winds 20-25 tonight with gusts of 35. Wait! 35 is gale force. That sounds like too much. How about if we wait till tomorrow? The winds tomorrow would be 10-15 turning to southerly by Sunday. Wait. That is too little wind and we might not get there before the winds turned around.

As I wrestled with those questions the reality hit me. Pineapple pineapple. We have had too good a year. It has been almost two years since we sailed in really bad weather. We have become spoiled and soft; looking for perfect conditions rather than acceptable conditions. It's time that we challenged ourselves a bit. 25-35 knots is right in the groove for a W32. We can use hand and feet warmers if necessary to get through the cold night. Damn the weather report, full speed ahead.

Now, 10 hour later we're well on our way. The wind is dead behind us. We're doing 6 knots with the foresail only. Everything is fine.

I thought that we might put in to The Little Shark River about midnight to grab a partial night's sleep. However, a check of the tides shows that midnight is the lowest low tide right there. At low tide Tarwathie almost scrapes along the bottom of the river entrance. Running aground offshore at midnight in a near gale would be a bit too much adventure, so I abandoned that idea.

We should arrive in Marathon mid morning tomorrow. The only worry is the shallow parts of Florida Bay. We have to sail long stretches where the bay is only 8 feet deep. If the waves get too big we could touch bottom. I don't think that's likely. The waves are really small now, and they won't have time to get big in the next 12 hours.