Help! My Boat Is Stuck, And It Cant Get Out!

Had enough yet?

Cold weather got you down?

Looking for ways to fight winter blues?

Living in Minnesota, we "locals" like to think that we're pretty tough. After all, who in there right mind would live in a climate where one day it's -50 degree windchill and the next it's calm and balmy at +30 degrees.

Of course, calm and balmy is a relative term, right?

A few years ago my wife and I booked a Bahama Cruise. We arrive in Miami to a "balmy 60 degree brisk wind". The locals were freezing while we're thinking this is great shorts weather.

We set sail. The sky is clear, the sunset is beautiful as we pull out of the harbor. This is going to be great!

Well, let's just say that we eventually nick named the trip our Polar Bahama Cruise.

We made it to Bahama the next morning and woke up to driving rain. The weather cleared up enough by the time we were done with breakfast, which on "cruise time" tends to run into late morning. It was definitely a light jacket day.

The next day we wake up to rough seas and to the announcement that the inclement weather would prevent us from making a scheduled stop at one of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines islands. Bummer! We were going to hunker down and keep sailing for Key West.

After a long day of sailing in brisk and somewhat chilly wind we arrive in Key West. The temp? An unbelievable 10 degrees cooler than Minneapolis on that day. WHAT?

Boy, where the sweatshirts selling that day. I chuckled as we walked up to the waiting line at Earnest Hemingway's house. We were in shorts, sweatshirts and/or light jackets and the guy taking tickets was wearing gloves. He didn't seem to have much sense of humor that day as I tried to make light of the situation.

So, back to present day.

It just snowed another 6.4 inches of snow yesterday. We have had 5 days of school closings due to cold wind chills and instead of a week long January thaw we live with one day at a time when we see 30 something degrees.

So how do hardy mid westerners cure winter blues? How do we avoid sad winter blues? Here are some tips to combat winter blues.

- Dress appropriately and go skiing

- Go ice fishing

- Go to an indoor boat show

- Go Snowmobiling

- Go snow shoeing

- Go for a walk

- Burn a pile of brush

- Research and plan for new warm weather fishing tactics

- Go through your warm weather fishing gear

- Head South for a few days, a week or a month

The winter blues seasonal affective disorder is more about attitude than anything else. Whether preparing to bake in the sun or chilling next to a comfortable fire while ice fishing, it's all relative.

I prefer to do a little inside and outside like going through my warm weather fishing gear, re-spool some reels, plan or shop for some new tackle and write about warm weather fun.

We have a saying in this part of the woods-

Just wait 24 hours.

The weather will change!

Fish on,

Doug Palmer