DATE
18 December 2021
Departure point
St Augustine, FL, USA
arrival point
Matanzas River, FL, USA
distance (NM)
14 NM
Cumulative Mileage (NM)
1,367 NM
Crew on Board
CALLY
Skipper, first mate, chef, entertainment and more; I guess that is solo sailing for you!
GENERAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS
WIND
Is zero wind possible?
CLOUD COVER
Not a cloud in sight!
TEMPERATURE
A northerly chill starting to creep in.
PRECIPITATION
Dry, thank goodness!
Log
It was a brief goodbye with George and Mary because I would be heading from a few miles north of their house to a few miles south. At an anchorage with a place to beach the dinghy where they could drop off my final parcel. It was expected to arrive in the mail any day now.
Lucky for me it arrived the day I moved anchorages!
George and Mary popped down to drop it off and give me hugs and wish me fair winds. They would be heading home to Rhode Island for Christmas soon so the timing worked perfectly.
I feel like their hugs ‘filled my cup’ and kept me motivated to keep moving and planning and working on the boat.
The to do list I had been mentally compiling was liable to make my brain explode and so I need to get it out of my brain. The solution, a wall of sticky notes. Like any good cruiser would do.
I quickly realised that simple splattering my list all over the wall would not be enough. I would have to prioritize these in some way, but it was the first step to productivity so it would have to do. Now I back alone and on my own with no St Augustine and George and Mary visit to look forward to and propel me down the coast, I had to set my sights on another milestone to look forward to in order to stay motivated.
The warm Bahamas waters and easy sailing began to form in my mind. Remembering the feeling of the first swim on my last boat in gin clear waters would certainly do the trick!
Now to sit down with my charts and find the most protected anchorage for tomorrow night. I had already been browsing a couple of options but had wanted to wait for the updated afternoon forecast to make my final decision. There was a northerly storm coming and I wanted to be ahead of the curve so that Coach Jamie did not have to worry about me and to maintain my independence. It was easy to be tempted to use Jamie and Behan like a crutch to answer all my questions and solve all my problems but that was a not a great long term strategy. In the end, I was quite pleased that by the time Jamie messaged to check in about the storm, I was able to send him the anchorage I had selected to move to the next day; and he confirmed that would do the job for this coming weather).
Go me!
“I have learned that there is more power in a good strong hug than in a thousand meaningful words.”
– Ann Hood