For those of you who have been keeping an eye on the weather, you will know that tropical storm Ernesto was heading our way.
The following will give you an insight on how we tracked the storm and how we dealt with it.
Every day, that we have internet access, we check PassageWeather.com and NOAA to find out what the local weather will bring for the next day or so, as well as any activity that is developing in the Atlantic.
Last weekend a cluster of disorganized thunder storms was identified off Cape Verde and was given a 20% chance of becoming a tropical storm, moving at 10 - 12 knots; a tropical storm will sustain winds of up to 39 knots.
We started to follow the weather on Underground Weather as well since they also provide different scenarios as to where the storm will travel. One of the scenarios was between Trinidad & Grenada and another scenario had the storm tracking in Southern Grenada which is where we presently are; this caught the attention of everyone in our area. By Tuesday, the storm intensified to a 40% chance of becoming a tropical storm, moving at 15 knots and there was still a possibility that it would head our way.
On Wednesday morning, when the probability of a tropical storm increased to 60% we decided to relocate to Port Egmont which is a hurricane hole, three bays over from where we were; there were 8 boats when we arrived and 5 more came after. The bay itself could accommodate approximately 25 boats at anchor.
At the end of the afternoon, the storm, now named Ernesto veered slightly south, heading in our direction.
In preparation for the storm, we had set a second anchor, removed the head sail, tied down the wind generator & solar panels, removed our flags and picked up anything on deck that could have blown away; our diesel and water tanks we full.
Before going to bed, we set the vhf radio to channel 68 and near the companion way we had a spotlight, air horn, rain coats and gloves; we were prepared in case we had to get up during the night.
Fortunately, later in the evening the storm veered north. We were lucky to catch only the tail end of it with winds of approximately 20 knots accompanied by occasional squalls.
Overall, we were comfortable with our strategy and should we have to prepare again, we would follow the same plan.