When we arrived in Governor's Harbour last Saturday, we picked up a mooring close to a raft called Antiki, whose owner/builder, 86-year-old Anthony Smith, had sailed her from the Canary Islands to St. Maarten, and from St. Maarten to Eleuthera. The voyage's end had come the month before, in early May, when Antiki touched the beach on the Atlantic side of Eleuthera, close to Governor's Harbour. The raft was then towed around the island and into GH, where there was a welcoming ceremony on May 9th. And so we found her, anchored here, on June 23rd:

Antiki at anchor, June 23, 2012, Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera. Note her position right on the line where white sand turns to turtle grass.

Close up:

we loved the ship's eyes that had been painted on her. like Derek and me, she has four!

But then came several days of rain and winds from first the south, then the southwest, then the west (with waves into the harbor mouth, toward the beach). Here was some of the rain:


It was whipping the water into froth part of the time, but I didn't want to get my camera wet:


But rain didn't bother Antiki, here she was next to us the next day:

Parallax and Antiki. See, Antiki is still right over the dividing line between dark turtle grass and light sand.

Just to give you some idea of where the beach is, another shot:


But after the rain came a windy day, with the winds from the west and the sea very choppy in the anchorage (except at our mooring, probably the most sheltered area in the harbor). People were running along the street by the seawall to try to avoid getting drenched by the waves!

It actually got a lot wetter than this, I just didn't shoot pictures when the whole street was drenched.

Rough:


And when it was over, Antiki had moved. That is, she'd dragged her anchor and was much closer to the beach than before:

Antiki dozens of feet inside the white sand terminator. She's been dragging toward the beach.

We're worried that one more good blow will beach her. She has many useful things aboard, like solar panels and a wind generator and so forth, and I am not sure how long she would last if she washed ashore, as seems likely, soon.