Planning for departure

    Schedules are not a prudent mariners friend.  Having to be at a specific place at a specific time can get you into trouble.  

   We are headed to Delaware to finish preparing to depart for our trip south.  We have decided to split the trip into two legs.  The first part takes us from our home port to just south of Myrtle Beach South Carolina.  We made a reservation starting approximately November 10 to the first week of January 2021.  We can arrive at the marina as early as November 1.  We are allowing about two weeks for what could take as little as 5 long days.  The first day is from Indian River Marina, Delaware to Norfolk and involves a run of about 150 miles in the ocean.  We don't want to start the trip with a miserable ride so we will wait for very favorable weather to start.  There are very few options south of Ocean City Maryland to head for cover until we reach Cape Henry.

   My weather research starts with the NOAA zone forecasts for the area we will traverse.  The most important aspect of the forecast for me is the general synopsis which details the systems that will impact the region for the near term as some conditions are likely to change the narrow daily forecast.  I combine that with information from Windyty and Swell info.  The version of Windy I have on my phone allows me to easily compare five different forecast models to see how closely they agree.  The most important aspect for us is the direction and speed of the wind.  Swell info is also great for verifying what the nearshore sea state is likely to be.

Right now it looks like we will be traveling South on Tuesday 10/27/2020.  Time to finish provisioning, take on fuel, pump out, and attend to other last minute details.

End of Season - hauled

Serviced and antifouling touched up

Detailed and splashed back in