N17.32.658; W 61.44.301 Monday January 12, 2015 Spanish Point - Barbuda We moved the boat on Saturday to White Bay (Spanish Point) to get better protection for the predicted rough weather on Sunday through Tuesday. One other small sail boat came in and anchored for the night and then left early Sunday morning. We have had the whole bay to ourselves since then. You can usually see the mast of any boats on the other side of Cocoa Point over the trees but last night we only saw one. I guess everyone �"got out of Dodge�" before the winds and seas picked up. The swells are forecast to 12 feet or more Monday. Started getting windy (er) Sunday night where it had been holding around 25 knots it is now holding over 30 with higher gust in squalls; which is normal. One gust last night was a bit over 50 and a bunch over 40. We are anchored in 13 feet of water with a sand bottom and just over 100 feet of rode out. (Yes, 100�', I like sleeping) I dove on the anchor and you can�'t even see it as it buried when we set it. We use the anchor alarm at night along with setting the small charter plotter at my bedside on �"tracking�" so I can see if we are moving at all. Works great and beats getting up all of the time to see if we moved. It also gives me heading, wind, course over ground etc. right at my fingertips. BTW: Us talking with the locals is why we are here, they say it is the most protected on the whole island. One nice thing with the sun and wind; we are able to run the watermaker without running the genset for a couple of hours a day making 14 gallons or so daily. Tanks should be full soon! Yesterday, I went hiking up the east shore of the island while Laurie stayed and read. It is completely uninhabited and open to the sea. I walked the beach about 5 miles or so to the �"highlands�" of Barbuda (125 feet ASL). It was a great hike but quite disturbing to see all of the world�'s garbage washed up on shore. I will post a few photos later but here is an idea of what amounts that I am talking about: • Plastic bottles, all sizes and shapes; thousands. Really. • Plastic flip flops and shoes, enough to fill a large dumpster • Hard Hats. Yes, hard hats. I gave up after I counted about 20. White, blue and orange. I believe that workers on ships wear them. Perhaps a chin strap is in order? • Fishing nets, easily enough to fill two dump trucks • Large vessel lines. Not normal rope (there were tons of that too) but the 4 inch diameter stuff, some in lengths of perhaps a 100 feet • Buoys; from all around the world including channel markers (one was 4 feet in diameter), fishing markers (hundreds of those) and yes, one from Canada manufactured by Metocean in Dartmouth N.S. I emailed them a photo and they got right back to me wanting the serial number. I said no as it is a 2 hour hike back, one-way. The buoy is a �"free floating�" type meant to track currents around oil spills or??? Despite the garbage it was a good long hike. I got back just before dark but not before meeting up on several occasions with donkeys and one horse. Apparently the donkeys are wild but the horses on the island are �"owned�". Nothing on him though and very skittish. So today we are hanging out on the boat although I might go ashore (it is blowing 30+ knots) later. The current over the reef is substantial so you can swim beside the boat at a good pace and not move. (Always swim up-current!) Checking the weather we will probably be here until Wednesday morning when we will go around to Low Bay to go into town to clear customs outbound. Next stop; back to St. Martin (downwind for a change!) and then visit the islands we passed on the way here including St. Kitts and Nevis but we will be back! The photo above is the Metocean buoy. (metocean.com)