Looking back at things, we probably should have gone over to St Mary's or even Cumberland Island. Or, maybe not. Here, although the mooring field is exposed, it is a mooring field and you have some confidence in the ground tackle holding even after the tidal current shifts through 180. We watched a couple of other boats come in and try to save themselves $20 by anchoring, and watched each of them pull out and eventually decide that safety and a good night's sleep meant picking up a mooring. Still, I thought about Saint Augustine and that us tacking about the mooring there was a cowboy ride, but that weren't nothin' compared to here.

Good thing the mooring balls are plastic.

The wind and current in opposition were enough that we decided to recover the dingy and engine for overnight. At best we would have been disturbed by the constant clang, bang of it at it collided with the stern ladder, and at worst it might have overturned or parted ways with her painter and we would have been without for the rest of the trip or at least until I could convince the insurance company to replace them. Although our experience with claims has been good we have heard horror stories.......

And then, just to add to the excitement, just to get the heart pounding and the adrenalin pumping, Barb picked up a tornado watch on the Weather Network which we confirmed through USCG Radio.

The madcap life never ends does it!?

Remember several years ago, Barb's adventure sitting through a tornado that went through Deltaville not 500 meters from where she was sitting on our boat. With this weather report and Coast Guard cautionary I might get to experience the same thing.

Whoopie!

As the night progressed there was lightning all around us but mercifully at a distance. It did rain for about an hour but then stopped and the tornado never made an appearance. I was kept busy several times during the night opening and closing hatches to get some air below decks and to keep the rain topsides. Then, just as I was sitting down to a morning coffee and congratulating ourself on dodging the tornado bullet, The Weather Network issued another tornado watch.

O goodie!

We have another chance of flying off to the funny old Land of Oz.

Although, you'd never have guessed that there was more storm on its way from the way the morning broke - high clouds, sun, all the good things, but according to the weather witches we still need to batten down.

Funny place, this. Especially with the obvious evidence of the damage from the Mathew. If does give one pause to look out over the mooring field and to see boats up on shore, boats with severe lists working up the desire to sink, and even masts poking up from the water from boats that haven't been recovered yet. I can understand why insurance companies don't like us to be down here during hurricane season.

It is also a contradiction. Here is this beautiful little historic town with all sorts of beautiful things to see and do and it's bracketed on both sides by a couple of big paper mills. I know they are important for the town and its economy but the sulphite process they use leaves an acrid taste in your mouth and the buildings themselves are as unsightly as you could imagine.

Around 1030 we listened to a Securitay message from the USCG and although they specifically mentioned Fernandina as being in the tornado and waterspout zone they also seemed to emphasize that the greatest risk was offshore. Glad we are here and not there!

Wow!

The weather forecasters had issued tornado watches, that's right, more than one, severe thunderstorm warnings (again more than one), and a flood warning but it's still a shock when it hits. As I thumb this the winds have just died down slightly after 15 minutes of bedlam. At 1300 they piped up to 50 knots, so much that I had to turn off the wind generator, and the heavens opens and must have dumped 5 mm in the fifteen minutes and it is still coming down. I know the state needs the rain but I'm pretty sure they would have appreciated it a little more gradually.

I wonder if there are any streams and rivers nearby to flood their banks.

I wonder if there is anyone in the campsite over on Cumberland Island. I rather imagine that this would have spoiled their trip.

The thunder and lightning is still thundering and lightninging all around us but it seems that the squall front has passed through. There are a couple of boats at anchor here, not too far from the mooring field. One of them has an older woman living aboard. That's a picture of her boat with this blog. She has two anchors out to be able to deal with the current but I still expected her to drag away in this. Nope. I guess she has probably experienced worse and she and her little boat are still there. Still, it seems a hard life.

I guess The long range forecasts are for 20 kn SW winds on Thursday well offshore but less closer in, that progressively die out Friday, Saturday and Sunday so perhaps we will set off for a 2-5 day jump tomorrow and head for either Southport or Beauford NC depending on what the conditions are like. Either will put us much better on track with getting home and Beaufort will get us past the rest of the skinny ICW.

Anyway, while the weather was still decent, I have put all jerry cans that we normally keep full on deck into their respective main tanks, so we have added 10 gallons each to the water and fuel reservoirs. I have done the first parade in preparation for a departure tomorrow AM and Barb and I have both made shopping lists for when we get somewhere we can buy groceries. That's one issue with the marina here - there is nowhere to shop for normal provisions. It is all restaurants and boutiques, and fuel and water was not currently available. In fact, many of their slips since the hurricane only have 3' of water in them at low tide. Where the water ends is soft mud so there are boats in there but for half the day they can't move. In fact, Captain Joe, the TowBoatUS skipper lives on his boat at the dock and he is in what he calls a "mud slip".

Due to the weather and our laziness about deploying the dingy, we spent the day aboard, catching up on our reading and watching for tornados, and generally being curtain twitchers when it comes to the storm. It has definitely been a "raincoats on, raincoats off" kind of day.

We have been in touch with our friends we met on our first trip to the Bahamas who are from, pick one, Annapolis or Hope Town and are coming from Elbow Cay aboard their sloop, Iolanthe. We are hoping to meet up with them somewhere in NC.