We are nine months out from heading south. (“we?” stay tuned for a crew announcement), and 12 months out from Christmas in the Caribbean. I feel I should be dreaming about Margaritas on the beach and warm sand and clear waters. Instead, I’m developing project, budget, and maintenance plans just as if I were working in my previous career.
I wonder when this ‘work’ which I enjoy very much, especially given the goal, will turn to sailing goals that occupy my thoughts. I suspect that budgets and maintenance will always be top of mind while travelling, but I hope that project plans will mainly become whims, ad hocs and what-ifs.
Now the major milestones are looming.
May 1 is the target launch day.
There is an amount of work I want to do or must do in April before launch day, like replacing zincs, adding a couple of parts to the new propellor blades, cleaning and buffing the topsides. The topsides show the marks of my learning how to dock a new boat. April will be a busy month.
May will be busy too. I recall swarms of midges last year that made working with one’s mouth open impossible. But May will be cleaning, organizing the deck and more. We’ll also begin practical training for new and existing crew will resume on the water.
August 1 is another critical date, where we decide to go/no go, but this year we will be better prepared and smarter, I hope. Last year was a great learning experience and the no go decision on August 1, 2022, was the right one.
Having made the decision on August 1, then September 1 is the planned start of the trip south. We’ll go slowly, ahead of the frost to arrive in Bahamas or USVI or somewhere after the December 1 nominal end of hurricane season. I’m still not sure how to avoid any big storms like Fiona or Ian that hit the eastern seaboard in 2022, or how to go South into a usually south wind and Gulf stream current.
My Christmas present from the boat is a Starlink unit. Iridium Go just won’t cut it for the next 18 month’s cruising and the prices of each are similar.
I hope you are having or had a great holiday season, whatever flavour of celebration you subscribe to.
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