We have received a number of blog comments and emails regarding the dilemma we are facing regarding sailing across the Atlantic or returning to Grenada to sit the hurricane season out. And while it is true the odds of us sailing to the Azores do diminish with each passing day that we sit here in Sint Maarten waiting for a reasonable weather window to open up, we still have hope that we will be able to cross the North Atlantic.

Each morning, when Mary Margaret gets up, the first question she asks me is what does the weather look like across the North Atlantic. Neither Mary Margaret nor I are ready to face the possibility that the end of our cruising life may be coming up. We really love this remarkable lifestyle and there is so much more for us to explore and learn and so many more wonderful people to meet. It is just that we are in the process of mentally preparing ourselves for the end of this lifestyle as we gloomily sit here, frustrated by the unstable weather across the North Atlantic.

Some of the emails and blog comments we have received offer excellent suggestions of what to do in order to enhance our ability to cross the North Atlantic. We greatly appreciate each and every suggestion and we do analyze each one, using a risk/reward process that we have used throughout our lives when faced with a significant potential life changing event.

We have not yet made the decision to not cross the North Atlantic. That is the reason we are still sitting here, day after day, in Sint Maarten. It is just that we are rapidly running out of time to make the decision to threw off the dock lines and head across. If before the end of the month the predicted weather looks good, we will go. Since the weather models are more reliable the closer to the day you are looking at, I believe we have until June 25th to make our decision. If it looks good before or by then, we will go. If is does not, it will be time to make plans to head for Grenada and face the reality that the end of cruising is in sight. Sigh.

Meanwhile, we continue to watch the weather. The tropical wave that we have been watching continues to grow and NOAA is now giving it a 70% chance that it may turn into a hurricane. The models I use do show it growing into a tropic storm, with winds greater than 40 knots. However, it is not showing much more development than that. It also looks like it will pass over Trinidad and Grenada before moving NW into the Caribbean and petering out before it approaches Haiti. The photo that I have posted to this blog shows NOAA's current 5 day prediction. If you wish to view a Weather Channel video about this tropical wave and its development, just click HERE