[Hilde’s log]
I must confess, I am happy to be plugged into the electricity at the dock this morning. The cold front finally arrived, ushered in by strong winds and rain, and the temperatures dipped into the lower 30s late last night. Other than being splattered occasionally from the condensation dripping off the forward hatch, it was very pleasant to lie in bed and not see my breath before my face. I thoroughly enjoyed going to bed clean last night and not having to wear a hat and socks and other garments that make me look really ridiculous. When we got up, we crowed happily when the thermometer told us it was 34 outside and 69 inside. Yes! Schnitzel is still waiting for her morning walk. I’m not going anywhere until it hits 40. I distracted her by making pancakes, a breakfast I only make at the dock or in a calm anchorage.
We will be shoving off early, early Wednesday morning, having at least a 4 day window to travel. We hope to go straight from here to St. Augustine in one hop, so we need the good weather and some decent wind to make landfall in the daylight. David tells me St. Augustine is 150 miles from here, so that’s about 1 ½ days, hopefully only one overnight. If we get slowed down too much, we can always duck into Jacksonville, which is 130 miles. In any event, we will be spare the tortuous Georgia ICW, which adds 100 miles to the trip. If it weren’t for the chronic low water and shoaling on that stretch of the waterway, I’d love to see the area, but it’s no fun to slowly bump your way along, panicked that you will run aground.
We are both happy with our travel plan and happy to stay in Beaufort at the dock while it’s cold. For one thing, Schnitzel had a bout of respiratory illness when we first left New Bern. Poor thing, she just lay in her bed and wheezed for several days. Fortunately, I had a full course of doggy antibiotics on board and after taking all of them she is her old self, playful and alert, although hoarse as can be. Her usual yodel is now a gruff, raspy bark, making her sound quite ferocious, which I’m sure pleases her. Anyway, we don’t want any more cold aggravated illness and want to make sure she is fully recovered before we venture out. Of course there is always laundry (our dirty clothes are so gross, they mumble in the laundry bin) and we are pretty much out of fresh fruits and veggies so a trip to the grocery store is in order. The marina has a courtesy car, which is a boon. I’m sure we’ll also duck into a hardware store for whatever gadget David has on his mind, and we need to fill the propane tanks. Add to that finishing the teak and enjoying some walks here in Beaufort, and that will fill our days quite nicely, just in time to catch the good weather and head south once more.
Here’s the silly part – when we listen to the cruisers’ net on the SSB in the morning and hear all the boats calling in from Florida and the Bahamas and then the last few boats here in the Carolinas zip on past, we feel such a tug to push off and rush after them. Such lemmings we are! I feel like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, hopping around looking at the calendar and squeaking, “We’re late! We’re late! Oh my ears and whiskers, we’re late, we’re late, we’re late!” Hold on…no we aren’t, we’re just where we want to be. Such a vortex pulling me to join the exodus, when I don’t even want to. The urge to rush after everyone else must be a survival mechanism not attached to one’s thinking brain. Let’s see, which is better, freezing to death in my smelly clothes in an open cockpit or eating pancakes in my clean jammies, enjoying a second cup of coffee and knowing that I can have a hot shower tonight? Cake or death? (borrowing from Eddie Izzard) Cake, please.
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