We received this photo of BEOWULF today. She looks very shiny with her newly buffed topsides (thanks to the Workbench in Virgin Gorda who cleaned her somewhat grimy aluminum). That makes us feel good. But then the fact that she’s going to sit out of the water for another two or three months is too depressing to contemplate.

Cape Horn weather January 20, 2002.

So, we’ve been dreaming about sailing, where to go next, thinking about anything besides the fact we’re stuck in the office (OK, the University of Arizona does play UCLA here today in basketball-but that hardly makes up for the fact that we’re not sailing). We’ve gotten into the habit of using SetSail-MaxSea to “escape”, at least momentarily during the day.

Take, for example, the concept of cruising in Tierra del Fuego and checking out Cape Horn. It’s summer there right now, and things should be mellow, right? Wrong! We downloaded the latest forecast-check out the “breeze” on the 20th. Looks like a steady 40 to 45 knots which, with gusts in that part of the world, means 60+ knots. A good chance to try out our storm tactics. So, if the choice right now is fighting our way around the Horn, to windward, maybe Arizona in the Northern Hemisphere winter isn’t so bad after all. We could run a “routing” for BEOWULF, just to see how fast she would go based on the forecast weather. But then we’d have to simulate going outside of the pilot house to set storm canvas and trim sails-and to be realistic we’d have to put on our foulies, jump in the shower, and then sit with our hands in the freezer for half an hour or so.

Caribbean weather January 20, 2002.

After the Horn we want to see what the weather is like around BEOWULF’s temporary abode. So back to theSetSail-MaxSea software to download the Western Atlantic. Looks like the winter trades have finally kicked in (they were missing when we were there in December). Fifteen to 20 or 25 knots (maybe a hair more in the slots between the islands). We know the sky is filled with puffy cumulous clouds, interspersed with areas of deep blue. The air is in the high 70s to low 80s, water temperature about the same. A realistic simulation of cruising right now in the Caribbean would be sitting in the hot tub tonight for half an hour, and watching the moon come up.

We’ve discussed it and agreed the hot tub is on for tonight. Better go and crank up the heat a bit…