Getting ready

I am slated to leave on Monday for Hampton to meet the boat which is also expected to arrive on that date. The big question is the weather.  Hurricane Sandy is expected to track out to Bermuda around that time according to the American Model but the European Model has it tracking up the East Coast, possibly making landfall over Long Island.  This could affect both the boat's arrival date as well as mine.  If the hurricane tracks up the coast, I would be at the boat to ensure that Eau de Vie was secure.  I am scheduled to move Eau de Vie to Worton Creek on Friday.

Professional weather routing is part of both the Caribbean 1500 and the Salty Dawg Rally.  Last year the Salty Dawg used Chris Parker who has a reputation of being more conservative than many other forecasters.    We had a window that we selected that enabled us to leave on November 6th, after a low had passed through Hampton.  Most of the other boats in the Rally waited for a more conservative window 4 days later. As it turned out that low remained over the Atlantic and developed into Hurricane Sean, but Chis's direction kept us well west of the bad weather and we did not have more than 30 kts of wind at any time

This time of year is very turbulent and the most important decision you make is when to leave.

More to follow...