Starting with the "Cruisers Net" on the radio Thursday morning, the harbor is all a twitter with the impending frontal passage which is going to bring us brisk winds and rain. There was a serious discussion of battening down hatches. I'm not sure we have battens. Just hatches. There were horror stories of how in the last "blow" someone lost the canvas cover for their grill and another intrepid sailor lost a green boat fender. (Still missing) My tongue is now stuck firmly in my cheek. Seriously, we are safe and sound on a mooring, so no worries. We spent the day planning for the bad weather, stocking up on bread, eggs and other comfort food. The bike rack at Publix was full of silly little bikes today as other cruisers decided to stock up for the bad weather as well. It's not that it will be a disaster. The winds are predicted to be over 20 knots tomorrow, so it's just that no one wants to jump in the dinghy and motor to shore. It can be a wet trip with resulting "dinghy butt" to make the bike ride somewhat unpleasant.
Other than storm preparations it was a pretty mundane day. Calm, warm and beautiful. I did laundry which took all morning. Laundromats are great sources of news, gossip and sharing of adventures and pictures of grandkids, but doing laundry steals 2 hours from an otherwise gorgeous day. My friend Phyllis informed me that laundry in Black Point Bahamas was $7.50 a load, so I figured I better get a jump on it. Looking at dirty laundry from the past 16 days is like a trip down memory lane of our adventures. Laundry done, we considered a last trip to Sombrero beach, but laziness prevailed and we sunned ourselves on the aft deck of the boat. Both of us are too fair to spend much time lazing in the sun anyway.
This evening things started getting ominous about 6 pm, just as I was about to interrupt Jack's afternoon reverie and request he grill me a steak on our aft deck. Rib eyes were on sale at Publix today and the bike ride works up an appetite for red meat. This could be a last splurge before we start eating out of cans at sea. By the time he had the grill fired up, the sky was darkening and wind whipped up bit of surf in the harbor. Boaters who don't have brains, or forgot to look up, went zooming past on plane in dinghys (strictly forbidden) to get back to their boats before the rain and lightning started.
We stowed our cushions, rolled down our enclosure, unplugged all our electronics and radio antennas. I don't like to be below when the boat is rocking and swaying, and we don't have a TV, so we sat on deck and watched the lightning show. It's a tiny bit exciting knowing we have a 40 foot lightning rod sticking up from the deck. This lingering stormy weather may curtail our fun but it's all a part of living on a boat.
FRIDAY:
The weather prediction for today was spot on. After a restless night of several rounds of thunderstorms we woke to a calm morning of southeast winds. Having been awake much of the night, we slept late, almost until sunup, which is about 7:30 in these days of daylight savings time. Jack had disconnected all the antennas to avoid lightning damage so we had no radio communication this morning. We aren't going anywhere today so Chris Parker's Bahamas weather report would be for entertainment purpose only. While I waited for my coffee to perk, I turned on the wind indicator to check the wind speeds. The calm winds were only a teaser, and by full daylight there was no more calm wind or water. It is unusual to see whitecaps in the harbor. In my experience it doesn't happen unless there is a steady wind for several hours.
After breakfast, needing a shower and some Wi-fi time we traveled by dinghy into shore. I wore my lightest weight shorts which dry quickly after the onset of dinghy butt. The ride was comfortably warm and only mildly splashy. Today is the last business day I will be able to get easy Wi-fi, so I wanted to take care of any leftover bills before we sail into the zone of silence.
Back on the boat I entertained myself with my usual knitting and light reading. Both tasks can be soporific so I needed a more energetic project. Yesterday I splurged at Publix and bought a big pack of on-sale ground beef. It takes up less space cooked so I cooked it up, some with onions, some without, in case it lasts until Paul gets here. I store it in my freezer precooked which makes it easy and less messy to prepare especially if the boat is rocking, which it was. Late in the day, the wind persisted in the 18- 20 knot range with gusts to 25 or higher. In these conditions, I'm not good at sitting below deck reading or typing so I'll end this with the hope of reduced winds tomorrow and one last day of Marathon madness before we head up the coast of Florida on Sunday.