I was so focused on the trip down the eastern seaboard and getting to warmer climes that I neglected to really think about the trip from FL to Trinidad (south of the hurricane belt), where we plan to leave Indigo Lady when we return home for a few months in the fall. That is one long trip, about 1500 miles (after 1500 miles from NH to FL)! Our original plan was to go from FL through the Bahamas, along the northern coast of Hispaniola, the south coast of Puerto Rico, through the Virgin Islands, and then down through the Lesser Antilles to Grenada with a final jump to Trinidad.
Then we listened to an SSCA Webinar on Tuesday by a guy who sailed from FL to St. Martin (about halfway to Trinidad from FL). He put up a summary slide of just travel times. It took a month. That doesn’t include waiting for weather windows, or stopovers to actually see some sights. Then if finally sank in- we’d be traversing the Caribbean, within the hurricane belt for 2 months of hurricane season (July 1- Nov 1 for most insurance companies)! Dave had planned for 100 days of travel in a 150 day window from early April through August to get from NH all the way to Trinidad. I should have paid more attention. I panicked. Poor Dave.
So I posted our plan on the SSCA Facebook page and within 24 hours had 20+ comments all pretty much telling us it wasn’t a good idea. My risk tolerance is much lower than Dave’s, and although I’ve done two transits, neither was during hurricane season, and we had remarkably good weather each time. Oh boy, time for a plan B. To be fair to Dave, his original travel plan was based on criteria I had set- I wanted to be home from sometime in September through New Year’s Eve, and I didn’t want to leave before April because I didn’t want to freeze my butt off between NH and VA. Those “non-negotiables” suddenly became negotiable once I realized the risks they introduced this first season when we have to cover 3000 miles.
So we spent a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon considering the pros & cons of various options (note the image above), and arrived at Plan B. We will now depart later in April, probably the 3rd week, and leisurely wend our way from NH to the head of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) somewhere between Norfolk, VA and Elizabeth City, NC (this is north of the hurricane belt), where we will leave Indigo Lady for September & October while we return home. This will allow us to explore Chesapeake Bay on the way down, and we won’t have to do any overnight, offshore cruising. In November, we will return to Lady and spend the month taking her down the ICW to the West Palm Beach area of FL where we will again leave her for December. We will rejoin her in January and have through June to get to Trinidad before the start of hurricane season. This will allow us to actually visit our FL family and also spend some time in the Florida Keys (two things I would have nixed if we’d stuck to our original plan), and we will be able to enjoy numerous stops along the route to Trinidad. This will be a much safer and relaxed trip, which is what this is supposed to be about.
Perhaps things would have worked out differently if I had participated in the travel plans earlier, but my head was not in the game earlier. I think part of it was avoidance, but mostly my mind was on other things after I retired in June. First it was our July trip, then it was preparing for the craft fair (which is very important to me), then it was my boating class on top of other commitments I’d made for the same time period (too many in retrospect). Once I finally felt able to shift gears to mentally prepare myself for the trip it was pretty late in the game. Fortunately, as former teachers, we were able to tap into our problem solving skills to evaluate our options and arrive at a good place. Dave is a little bummed that we won’t be in the Caribbean this year, but I suspect he’s glad he won’t have to worry about me literally jumping ship on him.
Life on Lady 