Saturday,
April 19, 2008The cruising life would be preferable, but practical matters are keeping me in Utah. The original plan was to fly to Virginia on April 1st, spend ten days giving Kobuk a new look, and then set off for the ICW and the Carolinas. But then family matters intervened and now everything is uncertain. Even so, here's a new target date for steering Kobuk out the channel from Yankee Point Marina: May 12th. If I can I will; if not, I'll post an update here in early May. Happy sailing, all of you.
Yes, this is Utah in mid-April. The land in the photo is where I plan to put a yurt. This will be an excellent second home for those times when I cannot be cruising on Kobuk. Perhaps, if it turns out to be impossible to get away this spring, I can undertake the yurt-construction project as a consolation for not being on the water.
Friday, May 9, 2008
I can't get away. I must stay in Salt Lake City--at least for now. Spring would have been an excellent time to run down the southeast coast and hop over to the Bahamas, but it is not to be. A few months must pass before I am free to return to the boating life. Since I have to be in Salt Lake City in August and September anyway, the sensible plan is to postpone until the beginning of October. Anyway, the fall will be as good a time for the trip south as the spring would have been so it is still there to look forward to.
The hurricane season will be drawing to a close by then and as long as Kobuk makes it to southern Florida before the onset of winter it should be possible to cross the Straits of Florida during a spell of calmer weather. The passage to Bimini or Grand Bahama will be 60 miles of open water and that will be Kobuk's longest to date. Winter weather conditions don't often cooperate but usually there are benign spells even well into December.
If Kobuk can get across before winter weather, then cruising in the Bahamas will be fine. The islands themselves are numerous enough and close enough together that winter cruising there would not be so risky. That's the goal: cross to the Bahamas before mid-December.