Winter has never been my favorite time of year and as I get older it seems worse. I enjoy coming to the boat even if is just a work weekend but the cold dampens my enthusiasm. As regular readers know the first mate works during tax season. That works out well because little sailing is done between early January and mid April anyway. With her schedule it is almost impossible to make a two night trip and she is less excited about staying on the boat in the cold than I.

Late last year, we took the sails off for cleaning. The sails from a 30 footer seem MUCH bigger when you are washing them than when you are sailing them. It was quite a task and I want to delay doing it again as long as possible. Spring pollen and mildew seem to stain the sails worse than anything and I figured they would be less likely to get soiled if they live out the winter under my office desk.

I cajoled Judy into making the trip by promising a stop to see Jonas on the way home.

Saturday January 30, 2016
We left earlier than usual, about 7:30. Judy wanted to make a stop at a specialty shop in New Bern and we had to stop by Wally World to get a new coffee pot. Ours bit the dust the last time we were down. We arrived about 2:30. The weather was sunny and about 60 degrees which is amazing for late January. We immediately proceeded with the task of removing the sails. The boat's interior needed some attention before we could unpack but we wanted to get the sails off before the sun got very low in the sky. Nick keeps the marina grounds immaculate all the time and we were able to use his soft dry lawn to fold, what seems like an acre of cloth, into manageable bundles that would fit in the back of the Pathfinder.

With our weekend mission accomplished we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening. I used my radio over IP connection to check in to a traffic training net before my Internet connection went south. Judy has a knitting project that she worked on for a while. We enjoyed homemade vegetable soup for dinner and stayed in the warm cabin for the rest of the evening.

Sunday January 31, 2016
We were up at the usual time. Little was to be done except pack up and leave. We wanted to get to Jonas' house early enough to have a visit and get home before very late.

We certainly picked the right weekend. Last weekend there was 3 inches of snow and ice on the ground. This weekend, both days were clear and sunny with high temps in the 60s. The nice weather is forecast to continue for at least several more days but after that, all bets are off. We are looking forward to getting back to normal this spring. Last year our land cruise out west took a huge chunk out of our cruising schedule. Judy says we are not going on a long land trip this summer so maybe we will be back to normal. We hope to do a trip to the Albemarle Sound in early summer if we can squeeze it in between the Dayton Hamfest for me and various archeological events for Judy. Jonas has never been to the boat and I think he is old enough now to enjoy it if he brings his parents along. Carson has never been to the boat without his daddy and we think anchoring out on South River would be a great first cruise for him. We did not have any other guests at all last summer and we hope to remedy that as well.