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In Search of Warmer Weather
11/22/00
Blaine Parks
The life of a cruising sailor often
mimics the habits of migratory birds.
They head north in the summer months and migrate to the southern
latitudes during the winter months. We
figured if the birds could do it year after year, how hard could it be to
find warm weather? Well,
we’re in Florida now and we haven’t found it yet!
It was 27 degrees in St. Augustine last night!
Stupid birds!
We’ve envied the cruising community
for several years. They would
come through North Carolina in late October on their way to warmer
climates. Finally, our time
has come. We spent our first
summer in the Chesapeake Bay and began our southern migration in late
October – just like they did every year.
We spent a week in North Carolina
visiting Janet’s family before sailing offshore to Charleston to see
Blaine’s family. You would
think that Charleston would be warm in early November.
No way – it was windy and in the 50’s or 60’s each day.
The nights were dipping into the 30’s and 40’s.
We swore we’d get warm once and for
all. We left Charleston early
one morning for a 200 mile offshore sail to St. Augustine, Florida. We reasoned that it would certainly be warmer there.
After all, isn’t that what all the travel brochures say? -
“Come to Sunny Florida”
We had a wonderful offshore trip. It was a little cool during the night, but I found Janet
removing several layers of her cold weather clothes by the next morning.
By the time we entered the St. Augustine Inlet, we were FINALLY in
our shorts and t-shirts! Absolutely wonderful!!!
It lasted a total 15 minutes.
We had just entered the inlet and had
begun to rig our docklines for the marina.
Janet was up on the bow as I maneuvered the boat.
We looked behind us and saw a mean weather front brewing.
Almost as soon as we saw the front, it began to blow.
The temperature dropped almost 30 degrees in less than 5 seconds.
We ran for our foul weather gear to stop the shivering.
The wind blew over 30 knots, the temperatures continued to fall,
and one unfortunate boat dragged on their anchor until they were pinned
against a bridge. All this in a matter of minutes!
So, here we sit in “sunny
Florida”, wrapped up in our cold weather gear, the heat running, and
still dreaming of warmer weather. Our
next stop is another offshore trip to Ft. Pierce.
It would sure be nice to put our shorts on and bury our cold
weather gear. But with our luck, we’ll probably experience the first
‘white Christmas’ in south Florida’s history. |
