We will be here a few days.
14 October 2015 | 26 00.992S:032 53.799E
Bill/Hazy and blowing
After we got anchored yesterday, we prepped for the North winds that were due in by the evening. We'd picked our anchorage to give us protection from winds from that direction. As is normally the case with us, the winds decided to not play nice and instead of north winds, we had winds out of the east to southeast most of the rest of the day. By 0300 this morning, it had shifted to coming out of the south. While the winds were hitting us at about 20 knots, the swells coming at us were not that bad, maybe a meter at worst. But hey, the forecast said we should be having north winds!?! Oh well, between the now 0630 cruisers net and the Sam Net for weather at 0830, we pulled up the anchor and headed about 2.5 miles farther south in the bay to a bit more protected area. Oh, the winds are still kicking up at over 20 knots but the swells that make being at anchor a pain are even less. We are rocking, but much less that what we had been doing in the last anchorage. The weather net advised us this morning that we should expect 20 knots of wind from the Southeast by 1500 and then it shifts at 2100 to westerly at 10 to 15. By 0300 tomorrow morning, it shifts back to Northeast at 10-15 and by tomorrow at 0900, it over to north at just 5 to 10 knots. By 1500 tomorrow, its back to East at 10 to 15. It's all over the place here and that's if you belive the forecasters. I thinks it's part science and part previous experience of seeing what's happend in the past. With it blowing at over 20 knots, I think we will wait to pull off the sail till probably tomorrow morning when it's supposed to be down to just 5 to 10 knots. While talking to Sam on the weather net this morning, he asked if we had planned on staying where we were for the next few days and our answer was a definate YES! HIs comment was that it was a wise idea to just stay put. We were lucky and made the turn for Maputo once we heard that the winds were set to hit 40 knots. Now that didn't happen but I'd much rather be here getting some much needed rest and projects taken care of. It feels like its been such a long time to be able to stand up on Zephyr with out having to hang on to something. We still have three more boats headed our way, Running TIde is still 48 miles out and he will be lucky to make it in with the current we experienced against him as we did by nightfall. Pippistrelle is 150 miles out and he won't make it here before tomorrow evening at best. Mahe Mahe is still is a ways out and I'm not sure when they might get here. We've all traded waypoints and anchorage spots but we will be monitoring channel 16 on our VHF radio so we can talk when they get closer. We have a range of about 20 miles so we can get to them long before they get here. So, here we sit and here we wait out what is coming. Down at RIchard's Bay where we were heading, the winds from the north are slamming into winds coming from the southwestright off shore with gusts hitting 35+ knots. The first possible chance we might have of getting out of here is Saturday when the winds change again and start coming out of the east but at a much less speed. Or so the forecaster think right now. Saturday is still days off and from what we have seen, anything can happen. This trip started out slow but sure has changed. The picture today is of tortilla chips made in the Netherlands. We got both bags while in Madagascar. You can find US recognised names if you look but both bags were great chips. Heck, we've even had tortilla chips made in Greece called "El Sabor". Must be from the mexican area in Greece I guess. --------------040001020208080608050609--