Sailing Positive Waves

  St. Augustine My memories of north Florida in late November/early December are filled with cool mornings, brilliant blue skies, bright sunshine, and starry nights. I remember only seeing the inside of Rhumb Line (the trawler we lived on for three years in Jacksonville) for breakfast, dinner, and bedtime because we were outdoors all the time. After months of hiding in the air conditioning or submerged in the pool so as not to melt, the dry, 75 degree days of December were unbeatable.   Together with our friends on their new-to-them catamaran, we reserved a mooring ball for Thanksgiving week in St. Augustine. St. Augustine has mastered the art of Christmas spirit. Decking the town in over a million white Christmas lights, complete with horse-drawn carriage rides, caroling trolley tours, and Christmas shopping galore, we were excited for a Christmas-feeling week with friends, in that perfect 75 degree weather, of course. Spoiler alert: it didn’t go quite as planned. Between our kids pas

  Waiting out a hurricane in Wrightsville Beach, NC We planned to head south from Wilmington soon after Halloween, but Hurricane Nicole (not so subtly) reminded us that hurricane season has been extended to November 30. During the first week of November we watched it track up and across Florida and then head along the coast of the Carolinas. We'd been through this drill before , so we moved Positive Waves well in advance of the strong winds. The holding was good in the main anchorage at Wrightsville Beach, but we predicted that the fetch would make it uncomfortable and it was also pretty crowded with other boats. We moved over to a small anchorage in the marshes that our friend Gordon pointed out (local knowledge ftw). It was blustery and rainy for a couple days, but nothing that felt crazy or untenable. We got off the boat both days, enjoying very windy beach walks and lunch out and generally passed the time with a "we're waiting but let's make the best of it"