Today it is hot – wicked hot - been that way going on a week now. Strangely absent are the normal Florida afternoon thunderstorms. As I pondered this weather anomaly, I overheard someone utter those dreaded words “Have you heard about the disturbance?” No need to clue this girl in on the meaning of “disturbance” – this time of year it could only be said in reference to one thing: weather...bad weather.
So, now it begins - two weeks shy of my impending Gulf Stream crossing. I know, as well as any whether guru, that it’s anyone’s guess as to what the weather gods will send my way two weeks from now. Doesn’t matter – common sense is no longer my companion and I begin my transformation into the OCD weather girl. Every weather blog becomes akin to a biblical passage, and I find myself trying to read between the lines of every forecast...like a fortune teller pouring over tea leaves. Seems that there is an El Nino on the way in and a La Nina on the way out – or is it the other way around?
Whoever said that “there is nothing to fear except fear itself” has never had to rely solely on his chart plotter to navigate his way under the MacArthur Causeway in zero visibility while blowing into port on a tropical storm. In addition to fear itself, I was really fricken’ worried about running my boat into a very big metal structure. I tell myself, as I have prior to every crossing in the past, that I can’t control the weather, and that worrying about it will accomplish nothing. Good advice...futile, but it sounds real nice on paper. I have never listened to such sage advice in the past, so why would I now? I guess that can mean only one thing: Game On - weather roulette is now officially in play.
So, now it begins - two weeks shy of my impending Gulf Stream crossing. I know, as well as any whether guru, that it’s anyone’s guess as to what the weather gods will send my way two weeks from now. Doesn’t matter – common sense is no longer my companion and I begin my transformation into the OCD weather girl. Every weather blog becomes akin to a biblical passage, and I find myself trying to read between the lines of every forecast...like a fortune teller pouring over tea leaves. Seems that there is an El Nino on the way in and a La Nina on the way out – or is it the other way around?
Whoever said that “there is nothing to fear except fear itself” has never had to rely solely on his chart plotter to navigate his way under the MacArthur Causeway in zero visibility while blowing into port on a tropical storm. In addition to fear itself, I was really fricken’ worried about running my boat into a very big metal structure. I tell myself, as I have prior to every crossing in the past, that I can’t control the weather, and that worrying about it will accomplish nothing. Good advice...futile, but it sounds real nice on paper. I have never listened to such sage advice in the past, so why would I now? I guess that can mean only one thing: Game On - weather roulette is now officially in play.
