D-Day Again . . . Maybe!

SHIP'S LOG:

Well everything seems to have fallen together to make departure for the Southland eminently possible. I survived last night and that wasn't easy. Last night the "tattered remains of Hurricane Nicole" arrived in Connecticut and was actually more nasty than "Hurricane" Earl! Surviving would have been a no-brainer if I was on the mooring. As it was, I was tied up to the dock. Loading all the last minute stuff and getting through all those last minute projects required that ABISHAG be tied to the dock. And with the launch not running during the week, ferrying a lot of stuff out to her on the mooring would have been difficult and surely, as these things always seem to go, some recently purchased item would have disappeared overboard during the transfer from dinghy to boat. Again, being at the dock made it so much easier.

Thus it was that ABISHAG was at the dock on Thursday when I brought down the last load of stuff for the trip to the sun. I was actually in the clubhouse check the weather forecast on several different websites as the weather, to quote one of the club members down checking their boat, "reached a new low in crapitity!" It didn't rain but the wind quickly climbed to 30 knots straight up the river meaning that getting ABISHAG out to her mooring would not have been a serious problem but the row back in would have all but been impossible, especially as the "occasional gust" began a steady and swift climb from 35 to 50knots! Inflatable dinghies are notoriously bad for rowing, yet even in a rowing scull, in the time it would take to reset the oars after a stoke the wind would blow you backward past any distance forward you had made. It would have been the old one step forward - three steps back.

And while I was dithering about staying at the dock or on the mooring, the few people here left and that made the decision for me. I would have to stay at the dock. This meant doubling and, in some cases, tippling up on the lines. It meant taking down the dodger and the awnings. It meant spending the nice again jerking and dancing, listening to the boat moan and groan and the lines screeching every time they want taut. It was not a restful night to say the least. But I survived and more importantly, so did ABISHAG. Now all we have to do is survived the day as the storm slowly peters out . . . . and get some more docklines as a couple have seen their last storm.

Tomorrow is food day as I will stock the boat for the trip to Norfolk and then it is departure day on Sunday about 10am. Off to Milford and then to Norfolk and then, to quoted the helmsman in MOBY DICK, "Up helm, and around the world!"