January 11, 2020
This morning Jinhee got on a plane and headed into the storm that is Toronto weather. I am left here to suffer in warmth and wind, with no real schedule. 🙄 No sympathy huh?
Yesterday and today I circled the island on the bike. It’s about 70km around, and the roads are okay if you are driving a car, but not so good if you are on a bicycle. I couldn’t resist however and had to put the time on the bike; that race in Sebring is now four weeks away and I am nowhere near ready.
I will check the weather again in the morning (tomorrow’s weather is the featured image), but I think I will head to Chubb Cay tomorrow in 20 knot winds and 6′ seas to be in a better position to cross to Bimini as the weather improves. There is a very small window to get across to Florida mid-week before the weather becomes miserable again on Friday. Single handing is a bit more stressful here in my experience so far, so I will be giving myself more time.
The trip there is short at about 40 nm, and I will go a bit out of my way perhaps to catch the deeper water. I can possibly anchor out if the wind isn’t too bad, or just go into Chubb Cay and pay for a slip and not worry about winds and waves. They have floating docks there which are more appealing for our current setup.
Which brings up a point that is worth highlighting, after arriving here, I have finally conceded that our fender setup is not appropriate for these waters. We will probably be making significant adjustments in the coming weeks. Fenders are best mounted horizontally and with fender line managers and fender covers. Being here (this slip is really too small for Home Free) has left lots of black streaks on the boat where the fenders have been rubbing aggressively against the boat.
Nice fender/line management clips are pricey, but they really make it easy to manage the fenders and we are going to be doing this for a while so we may as well bite the bullet and get it done right.
In similar fashion we may invest in a couple of super long Hypalon fenders which can be inflated and deflated easily for storage. These things are impossible to destroy and can run along the boat on a wall or between pillars, etc. A bit pricey, but another tool in our kit to keep the boat safe.
For this evening, I also have a long to-do list of cleaning, maintenance and so forth that I have been putting off, so perhaps I will get busy with some of those items now that I am alone. Reading is always a possibility . . . I haven’t done that in a while.
There is a new batch of yacht charter folks coming in tomorrow probably. The boats were all unloading today and being cleaned and fuelled. I suspect tomorrow will be very busy. I guess I may have to depart early to avoid the rush (and catch high tide so I don’t hit the rock in front of the boat).