missing sunny & warm New England...from P

Tonight's forecast: Lows in the mid 20s (twenties!), Northwest winds 15 to 20 knots. The further south we travel, the colder it gets. I have never been so cold. For the past two days we have traveled on the "outside" - we jumped out into the ocean at Cape Fear, then into Little River inlet, then into Winyah Inlet last night. The run from Cape Fear to Little River inlet was an uncomfortable beat into a cold 20 knot wind with a very disagreeable 4 to 5 foot ocean chop. Each time Senara would ride up into a swell, she would pound down into another one - throwing cold salt spray over the bow, up around the dodger and onto us. We have spent two cold nights at anchor. Today we ducked back into the ICW and made over 40 miles. The wind angle allowed me to fly the genoa (deeply reefed) while motoring down the ditch. The power of half a sail increased our speed an additional 2 knots, allowing us to get to this marina (Isle of Palms Marina) early in the afternoon before the truly arctic temps set in. Even so, today was a frigid experience. This was the first time I have heard K simply declare (after hearing the above forecast) "we are going to have to find a marina for the night"! Good call. We are warm and toasty on board, as our reverse A/C heat pump works from a shore power connection. If we had spent tonight on the hook, they would have found us frozen solid and drifting at sea tomorrow morning.

To prepare for the day, we put on long johns, a long sleeve T shirt, a hoodie, a fleece jacket, our foul weather bibs, a winter coat, then top it off with our foul weather jacket. Boots, extra socks, ski gloves and stocking hats have also become standard sailing wear. We live off our hot tea and hot mac & cheese while under sail. And the sun goes down - fast - at 5:00 sharp. In the Nantucket sound we wore shorts & T shirts. We wore sun screen and sweated. We want to go back to New England. It is waaaay too cold down south!

K preparing to take her turn at the helm. We both look like we are getting ready to take instrument readings at the Antarctic international scientific station.

Hey - this line is frozen to my hand!