The edges of Matthew packed a punch. Yesterday afternoon the rain and wind began to pick up, and from then until this morning we had around 7.5" of rain and winds in the 35 mph range, gusting to over 50 mph. This afternoon the rain has stopped, but the wind is still strong and gusty.

A few boats were damaged, mainly because of poor preparation. We had pretty much stripped the exterior and placed double lines on the boat, and we are fine. But it was noisy and bouncy, hard to sleep, and our forward hatch had a leak that dampened some of our stuff.

We are beginning to hear reports of ICW closure "until further notice" south of here due to bridge and lock damage, and everybody expects a lot of debris in the water. So we have firmed up our decision to return home rather than continue a delayed and messy trip south. If the wind forecast is correct, we won't be able to head north until later in the week. Until then we will keep reading and puttering. However, it is true that a boat gets smaller when it is not moving, so we might change location in a day or two.