Each trip begins with near perfect conditions – warm sun, flat seas and light winds that push the boat at 6 knots. Half way through (always in the dark of night) the weather turns bad and we spend a sleepless night fighting fronts, thunderstorms that bring deafening bangs, lightning that is so bright it leaves you sightless for a few minutes and strong gusty winds from the wrong direction. We limp battered and bruised into a quite bay many hours late, lick our wounds and sleep.
As I am writing this we are hiding in a protected bay with a very small entrance – we wanted to enter the ICW and anchor near a town called Beaufort (North Carolina) but the weather was too bad to get in. The winds have been blowing a strong 20 – 25knots consistently since we arrived 24 hrs earlier. The surrounding towns have tornado warnings out and inland towns have been hit very hard with tornadoes – at least 120 killed so far. One night when we were battling the storms out at sea there were at least 70 tornado touch downs on land close by. I thought we were traveling north to get out of the hurricane area by June – seems like we sailed into a worse scenario.
We are still waiting to hear on work for Don – at the moment there are two jobs in the offering, one in Papua New Guinea and one in Alaska so we shall keep on moving until one of them eventuates.
I am embarrassed to say that although I wish it were different, I am a snob and I do judge people too quickly - the good part is I realize it and can growl at myself but it doesn't stop the initial first impression where I am quite often wrong. For example Don and I were in a huge warehouse in Key West which houses new and secondhand boat stuff - a lolly shop for Don. I went outside to rest on a seat and was joined by another lady - I asked her if her husband was in there and if she was likely to see him within an hour like mine - we talked until her husband and son arrived. Now let me try to describe them - she was reasonably tall, very overweight - sloppily so, long straggly bleached blond hair with the tell tail dark roots, overly large old t-shirt with holes covering an old pair of shorts and well over 60 years of age. The lady went on to tell me that they were considering buying a boat and her husband was looking at secondhand chain for the anchor - my first thought was that if you could afford a boat then for goodness sake buy new chain - that is important stuff !! She could not remember the size of the boat but thought it was around 50ft, very vague about the whole thing - in fact vague about life in general - I was amazed at her declaration of a 50ft sailing boat - I had pictured a broken down power boat. Her husband arrived and he was huge - really large and having difficulty walking with diabetic legs - his clothes were equally old "work" clothes but he sported paint as well and other various stains I do not care to think about. The son was a picture - probably late 20's he was very dark haired and had not shaved for a few days, he had earrings in both ears and tattoos all over his arms - he had the jeans that lie beneath your bottom so you have to hitch them up constantly in case they end up at the ankles and a black t-shirt covered in skulls and swords. What a lot - and my snobbery went into overdrive and I played the part of generous visitor and asked about their new boat with interest - humm - they were buying a 65ft yacht but they thought it was a little expensive - the owner had spent 1.5 million building the boat - I was floored !! and they were buying second hand chain for this monster !!! They drove away in a new Mercedes and once again I growled at myself for my snobbery, I had just presumed they were simple minded. As if I can afford to be a snob - for goodness sake it is like the pot calling the kettle black. Its not like I don't respect all people, their chosen lifestyles and opinions it is I just wish I wouldn't form such quick impressions that are so often wrong.
