4/2/11
After several long days and sleepless nights of consideration, I have decided to postpone our departure south until later in the year. This has been an exhausting and disappointing decision for me, but is a more prudent course of action than pushing the weather envelope. My intentions of a leisurely cruise along the Pacific coast of Baja, indeed all voyages, will take many weeks for the nine hundred mile cruise to Cabo San Lucas and several more sailing the many hundred more miles up into the Gulf of California where tropical storms rarely reach. Hell, I spent four months traveling the four to five hundred miles from San Francisco to San Diego and I don’t want to miss anything in our voyaging simply trying to miss the inclement weather.
Hurricane season is nearly upon the area through which we must pass in order to get to those cruising grounds where I intend to spend several months and even though I tend to lean toward the cavalier attitude of “just do it”, I also try to keep in mind the ever famous saying of “a man has got to know his limitations”. I am currently not prepared to face a hurricane at sea, or even ready to face one in an anchorage with my life and home at risk, at least not yet. Instead, I have come to look forward to spending the spring and summer sailing the southern California waters practicing the procedures I’ve been learning about dealing with heavy weather, as well as working toward getting Minerva better prepared to deal with all that we will encounter in the future. Another bonus of a delay is that I will be able to visit those areas of the Channel Islands that I missed in my hurry to get south earlier in our voyaging. The delay too will make it easier for friends and family to join us for the delights of the southern California waters if they would care to do so.
I am now getting anxious to get sailing again after spending so much time in one place. I’ve previously said that I will be leaving mid to late April, and still anticipate this timing, perhaps a bit earlier, just heading in a different direction.
Fair winds
