marking time
19 February 2013
I was hoping to get away today but I'm going to hang around a couple of days more. I'm subscribing to the idea that the good sailor knows when to go but the best know when to stay put. With 5K miles to go, a couple of days makes no difference. Anyway, there's a little 35 knot blast coming through on Wednesday night and the mouth of the River Plate is no place to be in onshore weather like that.I'm only just getting into GRIBs for weather forecasting, and they're quite good if you accept their limitations - they always seem to under-indicate by five to ten knots. If I see a GRIB for 30 knots I know it's going to be 35 at least. But they're the only decent forecasts round here. The Argies have Navtex but give vague forecasts along the lines " winds moderate from sector north". This could be anything from northwest to northeast - useless and often out of date before they are transmitted. Brazil doesn't even bother to do Navtex, or perhaps someone nicked it. Turned much cooler here by about ten degrees, and just as I'd stowed my cold weather gear away.Enjoying much beer with Cruising Assoc yacht Moonshadowstar. It's a 58 foot monster - hydraulic reefing!! Makes Wild Song look like a Mirror dinghy.