Church going

Well, the madness of Halloween is over. Little kids are in the yard (garden if you're from UK; yaaad if your from New England) clearing up the now sagging somewhat forlorn carved pumpkins, soggy gouls, ghosts and skeletons from the lawn and fake spider web from the trees.

It's a good time of year in the USA. It's a long run of "holidays". Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving then it's a run on down to Christmas and New Year. A good time unless you're a turkey.

We were barrelling along down the road last week in our Hertzmobile when four enormous wild turkeys made a break for freedom sprinting in front of us to get to the other side of the road, nearly meeting their doom. That's not a sight you see too often. Mostly they're in a freezer bag. I can just imagine them hiding out in the woods 'till early January when it's safe to come out again.

Meanwhile, onboard, parked outside Gary and Greta's in Norfolk in the tipping rain we are waiting on the weather to turn. Us and 50 odd Salty Dawgs and 20 odd ARC Caribbean 1500 boats. The Dawgs are running late. They should have gone today but the weather and the Gulf Stream are against them so they are still parked up about 15 miles away in Bluewater Marina, Hampton. $100 a night so I'll bet a few aren't too pleased at the delay. Kerrrching. Stay a few days longer guys!

Up here in Norfolk the ARC Caribbean 1500 fleet leave on Saturday. We're on our jacko doing a solo effort bound for the Bahamas and Jamaica. Sunday is looking like a good time to go.

The challenge with this route is that there's a conflict of interests. The totters want a northerly wind to get blown south and east while the Gulf Stream is heading in the other direction at up to 3 or 4 knots. When you get this conflict enormous seas build up even when there's not too much wind. We heard on the Net this morning that in just 15 knots north east there are 20 foot waves out there. And these aren't you're easy rolling 29 footers. These are short, wind against tide seas and can really spoil your day. Pretty much every year boats are damaged and occasionally lost on this passage.

Timing is everything. You'd like a good northerly to barrel south but it's a non starter with the stream. It's therefore about looking for a lightish north element and making a quick dash across the Stream when and where you can. Fortunately there's a very good forecaster around here, Chris Parker from Marine Weather Centre. We've used him a few times including trans-Atlantic and he's been very accurate to date. When e rain eases we'll make a dash for the wifi cafe and sign up with him for our leg south. $90 but worth it although you can just tune in and hope there's another boat on your route getting the info you need.

We went to church last night. Us and Julian and Lyn who brought along other Dawgs Howard and Hope who we met in Virgin Gorda last May.

It's not that we've got religious. It's just that the poor church couldn't keep going so sold up and it's now a restaurant. Quite odd feeling sitting up in the rafters having dinner. My birthday dinner if I must confess. Good fun had by most.

And so, with the rain and adverse winds we are taking our time here, doing the usual maintenance stuff including five braided rope eye splices. I only needed two. One on the end of two bits of rope.....the old broken Genoa halyard from the other night and a new spare. I only need two splices but as usual it takes a few goes to get it right. That and a couple of metres of rope so the already short, broken halyard is now a wee but tight!

Must practice. Something to do in the rain I guess.