Still in West End
26 April 2011 | Old Bahama Bay Marina slip C18
John
The pool at Old Bahama Bay Resort
Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. We haven't departed the Bahamas after all. We're still in West End. And we won't be leaving until tomorrow, Wednesday.
About 4am this morning, lights started to flash through the overhead hatch. I tried to figure out where these could be coming from but I fell back asleep before I could work it out. Then just before our wake up time, 5am, light rain started to fall. As we closed the hatches, we could see lightning off in the distance. The lights were of course lightning from a thunderstorm. Hoping that the storm would just brush past us, we reset the wake-up alarm for 5:30 and tried to go back to sleep. At 5:15 we could hear thunder and the rain became steady. We reset the alarm for 6:15.
At 6am, the crash of thunder was continuous and the rain torrential. It was evident that the thunderstorm was right over us. You could feel the water under the boat quiver when the lightning bolts hit. Not a good feeling when you are sleeping under a 40+ foot metal rod.
Our hopes of leaving for Lake Worth were dimming fast. As 8am came and went with rain still falling and high winds still blowing, we gave up completely. So now, we are aiming for tomorrow morning, Wednesday, to make the crossing. Maybe it is just as well, the wind and wave forecast for Wednesday were better than today anyway, 12 to 15kt wind and 2-3 foot seas.