Just Like Old Times!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Wherever it is you might be, I hope you are warmer than it is here. Here along the south-eastern coast of Connecticut, it is brutally cold and the gusting winds don't help a great deal. The wind chill  is driving the "apparent" temperature into the "minus" range, making it hard to believe that spring is anything but a distant dream.

     Then again, there is Florida.  According to the weather reports, the "Sunshine State" is once again the state with sunlight but no heat. Northern parts of the state saw temperatures fall to the "low 20's!" The southern half of the state wasn't all that much better, bottoming out in the low 30's. Ah, does that bring back memories.  When I was in Jacksonville two years ago and it got that cold, NOAA was beginning its quarterly broadcast describing how to recognize the signs of frostbite and warning the locals not to put their space heaters too close to the drapes or the bed covers and the water temperature drop sufficiently to cause a massive fish kill in the ICW. It seems that four of the last five years, the deep south has gotten smacked with a short, say month long, cold snap that has been quite severe. Is it climate change or just an aberration of weather phenomenon. Whatever it is, it is COLD!

     The cold doesn't bother me as much as the wind worries me.  With the blizzard a week ago, we had winds that gusted to 60mph. This weekend, with the cold we had winds that gusted to 45mph.  And I haven't had the chance to get up to ABISHAG to see how she is fairing. As I mentioned, a bimini support leg has come askew and the worn spot in the bimini itself has begun to "part" in a serious manner.  With finances the way they are, I have to plan the expenditure of gas carefully. I now have a couple of reasons to head up toward the Portland area tomorrow and so I will stop by and check things out. hopefully, the yard did some plow because my P.O.S. is really, really, REALLY terrible in snow over 1/8 of an inch deep. If the hard ain't plowed, it means a trudge through the snow.

     It's approximately 77 days until launching. In spite of the weather presently, it is creeping up rather fast. Hopeful, "Punxsutawney Phil" got it right and it will  be an early spring and work on ABISHAG can begin soon . . . .  though the last 10 days or so don't seem to offer much in the way of support for that hope!