It's now Tuesday afternoon and we just changed things on the bow. We're still waiting for the incoming storm that's due here tonight now that it's done with Trinidad and Grenada. Winds are still predicted to be in the mid 20s to any where higher that Mother Nature decided. Heaven only knows the weather forecasters are guessing. Some forecasts are still saying it's supposed to be headed northwest away from the coast while others show it just coming west straight toward us.
After lunch(a wonderful salad with spicy Ranch dressing), we headed out to the bow to change out a set of our mooring lines. We have the originals that attach to the floats on the moorings and then a third line going down to another block on the bottom. We had a line that left the bow, went down to the shackle on the block and then back up to the other side and tied off. It's fine for pulling in when we need to go out and dump our backwater tanks but don't do that much to keep us attached should the line break. We pulled in this line and I dove down and took off the line that goes from the boat down to the shackle and back to the boats other side. I then swam down and put on one of our 3/4 inch three strand nylon lines that I'd put an eye in a long time ago. I put the eye of the line into the shackle and tightened down the pin in the shackle with my crescent wrench till it was nice and tight. Now we have the moorings two lines attached to lines from our boat, then two 3/4 inch lines going down and attaching to different blocks of concrete on the bottom with shackles. We think this is a better set up and if we have to leave for some emergency, the lines will be there when we come back.
Before lunch, two boats came in from the east(fleeing the storm) and took up a couple of the newly available moorings that other boats had left to go into the marina. One had a line wrapped around his the mainsail on his boom making sure it wasn't going any where. Well, the two boats to our starboard, both catamarans saw that and immediately set about doing the same only using lots more line just to make absolutely sure it wasn't going any where. Now I'll ask you out there, where can a mainsail go? It can only go up if you pull on the main halyard. If it's covered and all of them were, it's got no place it can go especially if you sail cover is nice and tight. Seems sort of stupid to me but if anyone out there has a reason why it's a smart thing to do, please leave us a comment. I'd love to hear your reasoning.
We, on the other hand took a different approach to our sails. We took our spinnaker halyard and wrapped it around our roller furling genoa sail like a "May Pole". We pulled it down till each side was an equal length and then each of us went to opposite sides of the genoa and slowly wrapped the halyard around and around and around the genoa will we got to the bottom and then tied off the lines to the bow pulpit. When we were in South Africa and the hurricane came through(Tracy was in the US at the time), I saw a big roller furled genoa sail torn to shreds after one of the lines to it came loose. Ours lines are nice and tight but with this wrapping, there is no way it's going to come unfurled. We left our main sail alone on the boom. The sail is tied down to the boom with seven straps and then a sail cover is put over the mainsail and it's fastened down with fasteners so there is no way it can come loose.
About a third of the moorings that had been filled are now empty with those boats either taking off for Curacoa or are hiding in the marina. It's going to be interesting when the boats in the marina come back out and find that the moorings that they had been tied to are now taken by other boats. I think the last ones that leave the marina tomorrow after the storm is past may find that there are no mooring left or if there is, it's in the ones that are much closer to shore. It's going to be interesting tomorrow. Meanwhile we sit here, everything on deck that might move or cause a problem has been stripped off. Sails are covered or wrapped. Extra lines to the mooring blocks and the sides are zipped on to our bimini so if we have to sit in the cockpit, we will still be protected from the wind and rain that's supposed to come. We sit and we wait.

It's now 2200 and I think the worst of what we are going to get has passed us by. I saw winds of 35 knots on the meter but so far nothing worse and it seems to be letting up. We may be in the "eye" of the storm but just not sure. If it gets stronger later than we are. About 2000, we heard a rhythmic thrumping out in the water sounding like a really bad motor. I climbed out the companionway and onto the deck and found a sailboat coming into the mooring field. Timing couldn't be worse as the winds were at their strongest at that time but at least no rain. That came about an hour later. Any way, I turned on our VHF radio and made contact with them and then went back on deck with my portable VHF and with the two of us holding flashlights, we directed them onto the mooring next to us. The thrumping we heard looked like they had shredded their genoa sail and what was left of it was flailing in the wind making the noise. We talked them into the moorings and watched as it took a couple of tries to get hooked up to the lines. It's hard when it's calmer but in these winds, it was a miracle they got in in just two tries. Sure glad they had their VHF on and we could make contact and get them in as they were not sure where exactly to go but had just come in behind our boat(just like the last boat we helped in a week or so ago). With them in and safe, all looks well out on the bay. I go out every 30 minutes or so and take a look just to make sure no one else is coming in. All we can figure is that they left either Trinidad or Grenada and didn't make it in here before the storm did. Sailboats will travel at about 6 knots but the storm was doing over 20 so its easy to get run over by it. Now they are safe and sound and with luck, the worst is now over. I'll be up for a while checking our lines and wind speeds just in case. I got a nice nap this afternoon so sleep isn't on my priority list right now.