This spring during the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound Rally from the Caribbean to the East Coast, the fleet of boats that were heading toward New York and New England were confronted by a deep low-pressure system right on their rhumbline. Chris Parker was giving the fleet daily weather and routing advice and highlighted the storm before any of the boats got to it. Many of the boats took Chris’ advice and basically stopped where they were to let the system, which was moving slowly from west to east, pass north of them. For some of the boats, the wait was 36 hours. For these Dawgs, heaving to was their Plan B. There were other Plan Bs to consider, such as stopping in Bermuda or heading due west to ports south of Cape Hatteras. The important thing to keep in mind is that prudent seamanship requires a skipper and crew to be flexible in their plans and to always have charts and cruising guides for Plan B refuges along your intended route. As sailors have always remarked, you can’t change the weather but you can change course and, to avoid putting your crew and boat at unreasonable risk, you need to be ready and willing to do so when bad weather blocks your way.
