Sandy Hook, NJ

Wind: S 20-25 knots, gusting to 35

We’re still in Sandy Hook, and I’m getting very sick of it. Today was the day we had to wait for—in some places the wind is supposed to gust up to 50 knots tonight, although 35 is all that’s forecast for our area. I’m hoping 30 is all that we see. I think it’s the most we’ve ever been on the boat for. We’re not on our anchor tonight, but in some ways it makes me a little more insecure. This is an unknown mooring, with unknown lines and rode, as opposed to our anchor, which we know and love. If the mooring starts dragging, or the lines break, I guess we’ll just throw out all of our anchors as fast as we can. It hasn’t gotten so bad so far, but Karl can feel the pressure dropping in his ears, and there are tornado watches on the VHF. We should be fine. I’m hoping to get out of here tomorrow, but there’s still a small craft advisory for tomorrow, even though it’s only supposed to be gusting to 20.

We had a very late night with our friends last night—early into this morning, in fact. We had a great time, eating popcorn, listening to Bob Dylan, talking about boats, drinking wine. Their boat is absolutely insane. Marcel built it himself, from scratch. It took seven years—three for the hull, four for the interior. He was bummed because he couldn’t build his solar panels himself. He welded the hull together, welded his own mast, melted the lead for the keel down from lead weights for balancing tires in his backyard. 4500 pounds of lead, out of tire weights, which weigh about an ounce. And people think that we’re crazy. They’re great fun, though. I get to practice my French, when they let me, and Karl and Marcel talk on and on about boats. He built his own wind vane, welded his own anchors, bought almost everything off eBay. I, of course, am most impressed by their head, which constantly smells like peaches and cream. I want to just get into it and hang out there, it’s so lovely.

So today’s been a little bit useless. We’ve basically drunk coffee, ate leftover pasta, and listened to the weather radio. No work on the head, no work period. I’m thinking about making beef noodle soup for dinner, and Karl’s avoiding worrying about tornadoes and 50-knot gusts. If we want to leave tomorrow, we’ll have to wake up early. I guess we’ll just have to wake up and listen to the radio. I’m really ready to get out of Dodge.