Monday, August 17, 2009

On the concept of sailing towards....

Right now I should be halfway to Curacao and if there was a God I'd also be filleting a nice size tuna for lunch... But nope I'm sitting in the Simpson Bay Lagoon after an uncomfortable night at anchor watching an inter-island cargo boat not quite drag down on top of us as demoted tropical storm Ana turned tropical depression went past.

So it goes...

There is a bit of nautical trivia and superstition where you never say "I'm sailing to Curacao" but instead say you are sailing "towards Curacao" and it underlines a very important part of the whole sailing gig in that it is never a precise enterprise. Face it, if you are someone who goes into a tizzy when your flight is boarding fifteen minutes late the sailing lifestyle is most certainly not for you.

In this case we were all ready to sail off towards Curacao on Sunday morning but the two weather updates previous had shown that Tropical storm Ana was heading more south than expected and in the general scheme of things this made our route one of possible convergence with the storm rather than one taking us away from Ana. The decision to abort was hardly rocket science and brings into focus the need to be flexible and pay attention to what the conditions are rather than set a plan and stick to it.

But the blue hued liqueur is still in short supply on "So It Goes" so Curacao is still on the sail towards list, but for the moment we are now watching/waiting as Hurricane Bill does its thing.