By now I had hoped to be on the verge of departure. Instead, I am staying at a friend's house in Bolinas, looking out over the Pacific but not yet about to embark upon it. My go-date has been postponed yet again.
The weather situation has fluctuated so many times in the last few days that I have lost track. I have to check my journal to remind myself.
Friday 27th July - departure moved up from Tuesday night to Monday night
Saturday 28th July - I consult with my two weather gurus - and it seems to be All Systems Go. I come to Bolinas to take 'time out' - a final chance to regroup and refocus and prepare myself for the challenge ahead
Sunday 29th July - I make final phone calls to friends and set up my email autoreply - 'gone rowing'. But then a call from Rick - the window of opportunity diminishes, and departure seems unlikely.
Monday 30th July:
6am - I check the weather conditions. Unacceptably windy. I resign myself to a few more days on land. But pack up all my possessions into the back of my truck - just in case.
11am - a health check at a hospital downtown, and a stop-off to pick up some sponsored chocolate from Tcho at Pier 17 - all relatively relaxed and mellow
Noon - a call from Rick Shema, and everything changes - of his 3 weather sources, 2 imply that we are good to go. Adrenaline surges. But the most important source of weather information suggests otherwise. He needs clarification, but cannot get it until 3.30pm. I drop everything and get over to the boat.
2pm - hectic time at the hangar - lots to do and the clock is ticking. Rich is still putting the finishing touches to the boat, Margot and John are fitting the devices that will monitor my solar energy systems, Perry dashes over from Davis Instruments to help out on an issue with the weather station. I transfer the essentials, ready to go - passport, driver's licence, my remaining few dollars, and the 'ducks in a row' from my truck.
4.15pm - the phone calls start. I speak to Rick in Hawaii, for his latest weather information. I speak to Gordie in San Francisco, for the local forecast. One hour later, I have been given lots of information, but the decision is still mine to make. Nobody is going to tell me what to do - it is down to me. It is a tough call.
It seems that I am good to go, but only for the first 48 hours. On Day 3 and Day 4, I am likely to run into strong winds, from an unfavourable direction, and I won't yet have crossed the 'Line of Death' - the boundary between being swept ashore and NOT being swept ashore.
I might get away with it, but I might not. Chances are... not.
While I am debating my course of action with Rick, a phrase pops into my mind, a phrase I once heard from a sailor: 'Better to be in port, wishing you were on the ocean, than to be on the ocean, wishing you were in port'.
So I say no. There will be enough stress later on in the voyage - probably. The one element I can control is my departure date, and there is no point setting out into marginal conditions. I need to maximise my chances of success. I want to do this once, and I want to do it right. To be 3 days out, at maximum exhaustion, and having to battle headwinds and big seas - that is not a good start to a voyage.
So here I stay - but still on my knees and praying to those weather gods.
[Photo: tense times. Photography by Deborah Dennis of Black Rhino Photography]
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Comments [0]
Tomorrow night's departure was always going to depend on fine timing. I would need to stick to a tight schedule in order to slip through a series of closing weather windows before the winds rose and pushed me off course and onto the shore. The latest forecasts show that the windows are getting smaller and smaller, so the timing is moving from merely tricky towards impossible.
Below are the stop-light weather charts prepared by my weather guy, Rick Shema. They show the weather conditions I can expect to encounter in the first few days, assuming that I manage to get 20 miles further from shore each day (note that I will probably travel further than this, but it is the distance from shore, not overall distance travelled, that matters).
You can see that yesterday's chart (top) shows a lot more green and yellow than today's chart (bottom) - this is not a good thing.
I remain zen about it all, accepting that we will know when the time is right - and leaving poor long-suffering Nicole to break the news to the media and business people who already had their flights booked to come and see me off tomorrow.
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Updated departure date: Tuesday 31st July, 2:30am, from Presidio Yacht Club, Fort Baker - but still to be confirmed.
We are keeping a close eye on the weather, and the stakes are high. If I get this wrong, I could end up with an (uninsured and uninsurable) boat piled up on the rocks outside of San Francisco Bay. This would not be good. Safety is the highest priority, as death is SO career-limiting...
Rather disconcertingly, my weather guy sent me a map yesterday showing the 'Line of Death'. Until I cross this line, I am in danger of being washed ashore and shipwrecked. Nicole, my wonderful PR coordinator at Ogilvy PR, suggested we should rename it the 'Line of Rainbows and Happiness and Smiles' - focusing on what happens beyond the line, rather than what might happen before it...
The shortest route to this line is 93 miles. So ideally I need a weather window at least large enough to allow me to cross that line before the winds strengthen. My speed varies enormously depending on the wind strength and direction. A best case scenario (with following winds - very unlikely) would be to cross the line within 2-3 days. A more likely scenario (with light headwinds) would be a week. A no-go scenario (with stronger headwinds) would mean that I would never get there because I would find myself on the rocks before I ever cross the line.
At the moment the forecast is marginal. Nicole said her knees will be bruised and bloody by Monday because she will have spent the whole weekend praying. "And", she said, "Yours had better be bruised and bloody too!"
The more prayers the better, so please call on any higher powers that you happen to be familiar with to help me get away safely on Monday.
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