Jan 6-7

Jan 6 - Wed

So it rained hard yesterday all afternoon and night. We had a lot of lightning as well.  The boat was pretty bouncy all night so it took me awhile to get to sleep.

Today is sunnier and the batteries are charging again.

We will head over to pick up the laundry today. I need to go swimming just to get off the boat. Yesterday was a long day.

Laundry was picked up; immigration visited to confirm Quentin's return questions; I talked to the principal at the public school and I can start after next week teaching art to the kids.

We had a good long walk and then came back to the boat for supper.  We were just watching the clouds pile up in the sky. Stephane and Bicher had stopped to say hello on their way back to town for dinner. Rick decided to put out another 25 feet of anchor chain, and I was taking sunset shots. It was gorgeous! (See shots!) The lightning was amazing!

OH MY GOD!  At 7 pm the wind started up and built very quickly!  The temperature dropped to 20 [trust me that's cold]. We locked up the dinghy, and Rick took off the motor and gas cans, the seat and the oars as well as the anchor.  The wind kept blowing out the front snaps so we couldn't keep the windows closed and the rain pelted in for a bit.

We read 49 knots on the wind vane, but others were reading higher. Of course the taller the mast the more into the wind they are.  Someone called and said the wind hit 100 in one of the hurricane holes but that not possible. If the wind was that high in a protected hole it should have been a lot higher in the open. Either that or it's NOT a hurricane hole!

On the other side of the harbour boats were dragging and hitting each other. There was a LONG conversation between Bamboo and another boat comparing damage. Apparently Bamboo lost the front of her boat [bow] and was taking on water; her side had been beaten in by another 40,000 lb. Boat [no names were spoken]

Rick put out another anchor and we never moved!  Jasmine City either dragged or put out another 100 feet of chain because they were far away from us later. [Most likely, since the last time was in this kind of weather we got much closer to Jasmine City than was comfortable!!]

Boats were reported on the rocks and losing dinghies, solar panels, pulpits... it went on for 3 hours.  And magically at 10:30 as predicted the winds dropped to 8-10 knots and it was very quiet. So we went to bed!

Jan 7.

This morning it is calm and quiet. It was clear all night - the stars were intense and the bay was still.

This morning there are clouds all around us but the sun is up and it is warming up nicely!

We will clean up some more [I defrosted the fridge last night] and see if anyone needs help, then wait with bated breath [no pun intended - Mal and my siblings are the only ones who will get that! LOL] for Sue and Les to arrive!

Ttyl - there'll be lots of pics when they get here!