Two nights ago we had another stormy night at the docks (not as bad as the last one). Remember, Westerly wind = blowing right into Victoria Harbor. Both Carol and I woke up grumpy, lacking sleep, and questioning our sanity.
I think the trip to Bahrain screwed up my internal thermostat. It is convinced that I'm a tropical woman.
We have two space heaters on at the dock and sometimes a diesel heater as well. And baking (i.e., lighting the nice hot oven) is suddenly sounding attractive.
Can you sail South in December?
Just kidding...mostly. El winter, el sucko.
"Just kidding...mostly. El winter, el sucko."
ReplyDeleteWe definitely second that. Well, depending on where you are of course. You sound just like we did last winter when we had missed our chance to head south and spent the year in Newport, OR where it's always winter as far as we could tell. Get your lily-white PNW selves down here to La Paz at your first opportunity. Sunny every day and had a high of 86 yesterday.
-Steve
Sure, you can sail south in December... but you can't go much further than Seattle or Tacoma!!!
ReplyDeleteOh come on Liv', try living in Ontario for WINTER... (been there, done that, never again!).
ReplyDeleteAnyways, how about X-country and downhill skiing? These really suck in the tropics but are wonderful here in B.C!
David in Vancouver
... why can't you sail south in December?
ReplyDeleteObviously you can sail south in December but, at least on the northern end of the US west coast it's not generally recommended. The seas off Washington, Oregon and Northern California are bad enough in the summer without the winter storms to contend with. Then if you do duck into the occasional harbor, virtually every harbor from the Straits of Juan de Fuca down to Bodega Bay has a Coast Guard station. They can and do close the harbor entrances to various size boats whenever they feel the conditions are unsafe for a bar crossing. This is based strictly on boat length so a 28' Westsail is given the same restrictions as a 28' sportfisherman and the closure is based on the less seaworthy sportfisherman. You can get stuck in harbors like Winchester Bay, OR for weeks before the weather will clear enough for you to leave, or rather, for them to let you leave. We ran into a sailor from San Francisco in Newport, OR in December of 2009. He had a very seaworthy 40+ foot ketch that he had purchased in Seattle in October. He'd hoped to be home for Thanksgiving. We met him in Newport after Christmas. Weather had him pinned down in Gray's Harbor, WA for almost a month, in Astoria for a couple of weeks and then in Newport, for several weeks. He finally got out but I have no idea how much longer it took him. I bet he didn't pull in anywhere else, though unless things got REALLY bad, for fear of not being able to leave. So, you can sail south from Puget Sound in December, but who'd want to?
ReplyDelete@Carol & Lance - We are heading South this weekend (um, to the Puget Sound)!
ReplyDelete@David - I fully admit my wimp-tacular-ness. We have been peeking at snow-kiting but I think I'm leaning toward flying to Mexico for a few weeks :)
@Jessie - Steve gave a great explanation. One way we stay safe is by not entering certain oceans in their most dangerous seasons. The N Pacific in winter can be brutal.
@Steve - Mexico so soon I can almost taste it. And we are seriously considering another fly-voucher trip, this time to La Ventana just South of La Paz for kiteboarding.
And you call yourself a Northwesterner... Some day (maybe many years from now) you will long for the coolness of the beautifully green PNW!
ReplyDeleteThat of course coming from someone who has to appreciate it, because there's no getting out here!
ReplyDelete