Merry Christmas!

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Ok I have to admit that I hoped to not send out another message from Deltaville.... we thought we would have left by now. But a few issues came up, and the weather has not co-operated since those issues were corrected, and so we are still here for Christmas. Luckily although the winds are not in our favour at least the temperature is higher than orginally forecast and it is not unpleasant at all. We work on projects and watch the weather carefully for our departure.

We went through our first crazy winds in the water. It was not fun being tied to a dock with winds changing direction all night and gusting to gale forces. It was a learning experience and good practice since we took shifts checking the lines and fenders. We would have been better off at anchor in the bay maybe, but the last time we tried to lower the anchor on our windlass it didnt' want to go down, only up.... and since we had not tried it again we figured high winds was maybe not the right moment and we stayed at the dock. Luckily we were also protected part of the time by a huge ferry boat beside us. Our only worry at that point was what would happen if the lines on that immense boat decided to let go.... but they didn't. We were both able to get some sleep and we are happy at how stable and quiet Caribee was in this situation.

Since I last wrote we have tested the waste system and there are no leaks at all, Marty has installed pretty much all of the electronics at this point and we are pretty much ready to go. Of course there are still things to do, but none that can't get done somewhere down the road. We are seeing less and less in the way of 3 day weather windows, so we will watch carefully for the next one and make our escape. Once past Cape Hatteras we can do day hops down the coast, so even if we have to wait for weather we dont have to wait for such a large window and we will make better progress.

I hear about the snow back home. I guess it's a bit more than expected and if I were there shoveling I would probably be cursing my sore arms and back, but it's really strange for me to be here. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all for many reasons. The first of course is because I am not with family. There is no snow... it looks more like October with tons of Christmas lights- my brain can't quite compute that I guess. We are also on a different work schedule..... we work the same all the time all days of the week. Usually I would be getting so excited to be having a few days off in a row. No crazy shopping. And not as much hype here... I found that Thanksgiving had more media hype, probably because that's when they have Black Friday- the equivalent to our Boxing Day. But when I wake up later this morning it will not seem like Christmas, that's for sure. We will have a nice meal together and call home, and keep planning our future.

Merry Christmas everyone, we hope you have a fantastic holiday! In case we find our window and don't write for a while, Happy New Year too!!!

😊

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Comments

[peter and claudette]

Happy New Year
Hi guys. heard about your first try...if at first you don't succeed etc. We wish you better luck next time. We are really in deep winter here, even Ihave been heard tosay "enough already". We're all thinking of you and invoking "the force" to move you on.

[Caribee Sailing]

Thank you for your encouragement! Probably not a bad idea to split up the first part anyway, we were tired starting out. We will rest here, do some more work and research, and hopefully make the next jump this coming Friday. We have a restaurant and a Tiki bar at the end of our dock..... I think we will ring in the new year with good spirits! :)