Everybody has a plan.........

The crab - a work by Picasso Kleman

During Mike Tyson's period of boxing domination, a reporter asked the champ if he was worried about his next opponent, who apparently had devised a plan to spring a major upset. "Everybody has a plan until they get hit upside the head" was his response.

Here in the Bahamas, we create, revise, and re-revise our sailing route but the ultimate arbiter of our plan in clearly the weather. We're island hopping to the southeast.......making big jumps when the wind is favorable (which isn't often). We get no fewer than 3 weather reports, compare our information to that of other cruisers, then make a decision on whether to sail.

The cost of being wrong can be severe.........in 25 knot wind coming right at us, the boat will move at only 2-3 knots; barely a slow walk. It's hard on the boat as well as our nerves. Move the wind around by 40 degrees, and L'ORIENT can move at more than 7 knots and cover a lot of ground quickly. In short, the weather means everything.

We're settling into the cruising routine.......doing boat chores (including painting red crabs on our dinghy to deter thieves), dealing with things breaking, making our own power and water.......and exploring the islands. It's strange that there is virtually no one on some of these islands. We've seen one moving vehicle in the past 5 days. A lot different than Miami Beach.

So the plan right now is to move L'ORIENT east on Thanksgiving......next stop Long Island or Rum Cay Bahamas (to be decided by the wind, of course).