33 Degrees

That's how much warmer Houston will be today. The highs today will be 42 here and 75 there, and that's why I'm heading down to Houston, or at least south. I may or may not actually make it to Houston this winter, it all depends on the boat and the weather, but that's where I'm bound.

We have almost no wind today, so as soon as it reaches the high of 42, around 1300, I'll try to go up the mast. I actually hooked everything up yesterday to test it out, but didn't try to go up. I was wearing my sailing gloves, which are really thin and have the tips of the thumb and index finger cut out, but after only a few minutes, I felt like I was getting frostbite on my right thumb and gave it up.

I'd tried to use another set of gloves, but they were too loose and bulky and made it difficult to work the ascenders. I have some glove liners I'll try today, and plan to wear my fingerless wool gloves over them. Hopefully that will be enough -- it was below freezing when I tried it yesterday. I could also try to go up tomorrow. It's forecast to be a balmy 51, but there's also a 60% chance of rain which might make it worse.

I bent the sails on yesterday, so if I can get the chafing gear on early enough today, I'll take her out for a short sail this afternoon. There's not much wind, but that's actually better, since I just want to go through the motions and make sure everything is working correctly.

I also want to start working on my other radios, so the weather delay's probably a good thing -- I definitely want to get the new VHF and AIS units installed. However, the gale warnings from Sunday into early next week all the way down the coast to Florida still aren't terribly encouraging. I just hope that the high expected on Wednesday night, Thursday morning, brings good weather with it for several days.

I know I'm going to have to deal with high winds and heavy seas at some point, but I'd prefer to put that off for a while, at least until I've had a chance to test out the boat, and myself, a bit. I also need to see how Zoe's going to deal with all of this and make any accommodations.

Too bad I couldn't have gotten out of here a couple of months earlier. Mais, c'est la vie.