Sunday, May 21 – 1800

The weather picture between here and the East Coast is starting to clarify and improve its potential. The Bermuda Weather Service, Marine Prediction Center,and Commander’s Weather all show southwesterly flow building out towards Bermuda in the next 24 hours.

The upper level low over Bermuda for the past four or five days (seen on the 500mb fax charts) has moved off and the sun is out – hooray. We’ve been drying out awnings and cockpit cushions, in anticipation of storing them below for the upcoming passage.

The way the 48 hour “progs” (forecasts) look right now, we’ll leave some time on Monday, probably towards mid-day. The trade off on departure time is this: the later we wait, the better southwest flow we’ll have when we leave here. However, the later we arrive near the coast, the higher the chance we’ll have a cold front pass over us, bring a shift to west, then northwest, and finally north winds – more or less right on the nose. Ideally, the cold front will pass ten minutes after our anchor is down in Newport, Rhode Island.

The freezer is stocked with pre-cooked meals, brownies, and a yummy fruit cobbler which we just tasted to be sure it was up to standard…it is.

All we need to do now is clear customs, wipe the bottom and prop, set the storm covers, and double-lash the dinghies.

(View the weatherfaxes at http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov .)