We lounged around a bit in the marina in the morning, sipped our coffee and watched the morning weather forecasts. It was hard to bring ourselves to unplug the boat from its heat source. Outside it was windy (20 - 25k NW) and cold (40 degrees). Inside it was quite cozy with our hatchboards in and central heat cranking at 76 degrees. We leisurely prepared for a 9:30 cast off. We left the slip without incident and headed south down the river. We had 3 draw bridges to hail and the first two were on call, so there was no waiting for them. This is familiar water for us, so except for the bitter cold, it was smooth sailing (ummm, make that smooth motoring.) Even though the winds were no longer on the nose and we could have sailed - we didn't because it was so dang cold. I told Chris I was afraid my fingers would snap off if I had to handle sail lines. We cuddled together on the long captains seat (that we refer to as the love seat), dressed in 4 layers of clothes, and shivered. I made a hot water bag that I put in my pocket for extra warmth. When we arrived at the barge canal entrance to our marina, we were too late for the opening (it only opens on the 1/2 hour) and had to wait for the next opening. We tried to keep the boat in idle to wait out the 30 minutes, but the NW wind pushed us down the barge canal at 4.5 knots. By keeping the motor in reverse we were able to keep the boat at only 1-2 knots forward speed! It was a long 30 minutes, but finally we were through the State Road 3 bridge and on the home stretch to our marina. By the time we entered the marina, we had a 25 knot cross wind. Our attempt to back in the slip despite the significant cross wind was less than pretty. Fortunately, several of our dock neighbors were out and came over to lend a hand. The water in the marina was down about 1 foot due to the NW winds and we had to drag LaLeLu in across the silty bottom. Not the entrance we had envisioned - but none the less, we were very relieved and happy to have her in her new home.
No comments:
Post a Comment