Crandon Park Marina, FL

0 nm
Wind: E 10-15 knots, gusting to 20 in the afternoon, blustery, rain

Our plan today was to do a vast reprovision at the Winn-Dixie a bus ride away in town, but, as usual when we have ambitious plans, we decided to stay on the boat and loaf instead. Last night, Lise and Marcel gave us a huge stack of old sailing magazines, mainly Latitudes and Attitudes, a crazy cruising magazine run by a former Hell’s Angel turned live-aboard. Every time we tried to get up and actually do something, either Karl or I was pulled in by another article about fishing, or hurricanes, or weather reporting, or the South Seas. We traded magazines all day long--I’d find an article and show it to him, then he’d find one and show it to me, and then we’d spend another two hours on a new magazine.

Of course, Lise had a couple of gossip rags thrown in there for good measure, so I was able to drink my fill at the polluted spring of celebrity hijinks. I devoured all of them, and ended up by feeling far worse about my physical appearance than I have in a long time. When did all those fashionistas get so skinny? I know they always have been, but being an unshowered hippie with unshaven legs for months on end has made all the glitz and glamour seem all that much more shocking. Latitudes and Attitudes has a great column written from a women’s perspective, and they had a couple of articles written about maintaining one’s femininity on a boat. Mainly it involves wearing sarongs and not looking in mirrors. Sounds good to me.

Even though the rain and wind were whipping around in the afternoon, there appears to be a Bahamas weather window opening on Wednesday or Thursday. We’ve been waiting to be in this position for some time, but now that we’re actually some place which we could use as a jumping-off point, with a little weather window creaking open, I’m a little freaked out. Are we actually going to do this? Are we actually ready? What about hurricanes? What about everything?

I suppose you never really feel ready for the next stage of any adventure. You never really are ready until you do it. But are we ready enough to go? I don’t know. If we don’t go now, will we ever be ready? All everyone talks about now is hurricanes, hurricanes, all the time, but I’m not going backwards and we’re just as likely to get hit by a hurricane here as anywhere else. They say the best bet is to keep moving south and east, where if the hurricanes hit at least they’ll be weaker, and where there’s plenty of mangroves in which to hide. And they say April through June are the best winds to move. So who knows. Two months to the Dominican Republic? I suppose it’s possible.