Weather

It's 10:30 pm Wednesday night and a gale is blowing from the NNW. Weather was always a topic when I was a landlubber and it did have some affect on me, but now I live it.

Last year on the panhandle we heard from the locals how it was the worst winter in memory. It's deja vu all over again. The locals in Marathon (aka paradise) are declaring this the worst winter in memory.

One example: Last Sunday we played Mexican Train dominoes and one of the couples, Paul and Melinda were leaving Monday morning on their 41 foot Morgan Out Island for the Bahamas. Paul and Melinda have over a decade of experience cruising in the islands, South America and Central America. Monday afternoon, around 4:00 pm, I was in the Marina lobby when the very wet (still in foul weather gear) Paul and Melinda checked back in. One thing about cruisers is that you don't bother folks just coming in - they have enough on their minds and are usually feeling a little physically worn. We got the story when they came over Tuesday. The short answer was (and remember gentle reader - you have heard this from me more than once before) NOAA lied.

Weather is packing Boot Key harbor to the gills. The last I heard, the waiting list for a mooring has reached thirty. Every good, and not so good, anchorage spot is taken; plus a dozen boats are anchored outside the harbor hoping some of us will leave.

Des and Betty subcribe to Chris Parker (a cruising weather guru) and are getting such discouraging data that they are considering putting their boat on the hard and heading back to Canada.

We are thinking about tip-toeing up the Keys on the inside next month after we get back from Tristan's Navy OCS graduation. Larry, a veteran of the inside route, spent the afternoon with me marking up Keys charts with travel data for us. We will still have to be careful of the weather, but conditions are always a bit calmer on the inside with far more anchorages possible.

I am sure once (if ever) we clear the last marker out of Boot Key Harbor we will be able to hear the cheering from the waiting list crowd.