Maddie and I are waiting in Deltaville, VA, for a weather window to leave the United States and head out to Bermuda. As it stands, the forecast on various websites says that Saturday will be a good time to leave. We will need to leave here at dawn to make our way down the bay to the mouth of the Chesapeake on Saturday, then spend Sunday heading far from land, and hopefully Monday to cross the Gulf Stream.
Tuesday starts some foul weather up in this area, but if we are far enough south, we will be able to avoid the worst of it and have a nice and gentle sail towards Bermuda.
Maddie is totally calm about the whole ordeal because she fully trusts that when I say it is time to go, it will be safe for us to go. This is what makes me nervous. This will be our first ocean passage on our boat Wisdom and I want it to be a wonderful experience. I worry that if we run into some serious weather, that it might set a bad taste in her mouth for future passages.
My other concern is if I say it is safe to go and something bad were to happen, I would have put her in danger.
I know that no voyage would be complete without a storm at sea, and I know that we are far more than prepared for anything like that but I still worry.
As our planned departure date approaches, I feel my heart race and my stomach twist with anxiety as we prepare to leave the safety of the marina we are tied up in to head out into the great blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
This has been a dream of mine for 9 years, and now the moment I have been waiting for is 2 days ahead of me, and I would say that stage fright has struck!
