Sailors and the rain...

So, what do a bunch of male sailors do when it rains?  Bond over electronics!  Just look at the computers and such!

The women stayed aboard their own boats and spent the 4 HOURS of their own time.  I stayed in the cockpit and knit socks.  Smoke watched them warily from our bedroom as she catnapped.

We've enjoyed our stay in Onset.  Nice little town with bus service everywhere.  Except it doesn't run on Sundays.  So, the crowd of 4 boats met at the local pizza place and ate.  And the bus doesn't run on holidays (like Labor Day....) contrary to earlier info, so 3 of the couples walked the 2-ish miles to Wal-Mart and the fast food strip.  It was a cool, nice day and the walk was easy.  We had lunch with Christine and Peter, then we caught a ride back with Coleen and Bruce.  Seems they met up with friends who had rented a truck.  Yes, some of the guys rode in the truck bed along with groceries, bottles of wine, and Wal-Mart loot..

Tuesday it rained all day and is promising to continue all day today.  If it lets up this afternoon we'll meet others in town and ride the buses just for the hell of it to see where they go.  Where else can you get that sort of town tour for $0.50 each!

With the wind from the SW, we've been bottled up in Onset. We've been watching Katia for the last several days, and were at the proverbial fork in the road. One option was to move out when the winds turned NE on Wednesday, get down Buzzards bay, further away from Katia, and on into Long Island Sound,  through New York City, down the NJ coast, up the Deleware Bay,  down the Chesapeake.  To get as far as Cape May NJ that way would take 5 to 6 days, discounting possible lost days with the current being adverse at the Race (eastern end of Long Island), and through NY harbor. The other option was to wait for Katia to go by, in our good, proven anchorage at Onset (closest approach is Friday morning), leave for Block Island on Saturday morning, pass it, and go directly to Cape May. That's about a 260 mile run, about 40 hours. If that goes well, and the weather smiles on us, keep on trucking, and get to Norfolk in another 130 miles, or about 20 hours.  Rain and gusty winds today pushed us over the edge, and we chose option two. The drawback is that we're counting on weather forecasts 4 to 5 days ahead. Stay tuned!

All that said, we will probably be here until Saturday morning, and then if the weather continues to be as forecast, head out for our run towards Norfolk.  There are a few ports along the Atlantic coast that we can abort to if we or the weather change our minds.