Day15: Up the Cape towards CP6

... as reported by "DancesWithSandyBottom"

Having traveled 43 miles on Day14, SandyBottom will start Day15 (Saturday) about 160 miles from CP6. The image below shows the campsite she reached Friday evening at 9:15 PM as well as a very rough sketch of where campsites might turn out to be along the way to CP6. That is Cape Canaveral to the east of the campsite's yellow marker in the image.

The route SandyBottom aims to travel today on the intracoastal waterway (ICW) starts out going north, curves eastward toward the beach and then makes a sharp left turn to a north / northwest bearing. It then follows the coastline through Canaveral National Seashore.

SandyBottom will start Day15 a few miles behind DrKayak. If he does not pause and is able to continue using his sail all the way to CP6, then SandyBottom will probably not see him again until she reaches CP6.

While SandyBottom paddled from 5:30 to 9:15 with no help from her class1 sail, DrKayak sailed / paddle-sailed his class3 boat from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM and covered about 8 more miles than SandyBottom did and went past her campsite in the dark at about 10 PM.

Forecast: Winds on Day15 will be light before sunrise, gradually build to 10-15 knots by mid-day and then gradually decrease thereafter. At the same time the winds will be continually shifting throughout the day from NW (4am) to N (10am) to NE (4pm) to ENE (10pm).

By Sunday the wind direction will be from the East and will thereafter be shifting to flow from south to north; so, tailwinds in the forecast for Sunday and Monday. That will be good!

For today the negative impact of the wind will depend on what time SandyBottom launches. Earlier is better, wind-wise, but means less sleep. Starting early combined with a mid-day nap for a few hours followed by paddling until midnight may turn out to be a good strategy; like the matador who steps to one side as the bull rushes past.

Day15 may not turn out to be a great day for SandyBottom, but the forecasts for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday indicate helpful tailwinds to ease the pain.

Tune in later and we shall all find out what actually happens.

Note: I was thinking recently that perhaps I should consider changing my WaterTribe name to something like "ThatsEasyForHimToSay" or "HeWhoKnowsNothingButTalksAnyway."



The DreamCatcher paddled by SandyBottom.