I check the NWS marine weather web site to see if the forecast has changed overnight. Nope. Winds backing through NE to a NW gale by evening. I check the GoMOOS buoy off Owl’s Head and see the wind is still ESE so it’s got some time before it shifts to NW and then some more time before the seas build. It’s right about now that I’m missing the GoMOOS mooring off Monhegan that somehow broke free. I really would like to know what’s going on just offshore. But, back to the NWS page I check the conditions at the NOAA buoy off Portland and see that it’s already shifted NW and gusting to 20 kts (not meters per second, whatever that is). If I’m going to ask Capt. Bracy to pick me up at Port Clyde it will have to be sooner rather than later and I’ll have some serious groveling to do with one Mom in particular. But, if I drive to Portland later this afternoon, I can take care of the kids and get to the ship in time for a short nap before I go on duty off Monhegan around 4 a.m. It’s settled. I’m off to Portland.
Jeff Cockburn is a Penobscot Bay pilot.