A strong cold front swept through the area overnight bringing gale and near-gale force winds, massive thunderstorms and lots of rain. Behind it this morning we have continued stormy conditions with quickly rising barometric pressure; check out the pressure graph. We compare our pressure readings with the NOAA weather chart and sure enough, right on forecast.

In these conditions it’s good to be at the marina dock rather than in the drag-strip anchorage, especially at night. Sleep is soo much better than anchor / storm watch! We even turned our VHF radio off as to not disturb our sleep because there are no boats in our area that could cause us distress. The Dockmaster and his wife do that have that pleasure; they’ve been busy with boat emergency calls and rescues.

A couple of mornings ago a rather large motor-yacht went on the rocks at the entrance; it was totally his fault because he was following a sailboat very closely and when the sailboat turned sharply to port, he says he had to turn sharply to starboard to avoid hitting them thus missing the break between reefs. Well.. I thought, first, following too close, and second, ever heard of engine-reverse? Being a Big Boy on a Big Motor Yacht, he insists it’s the small sailboat’s fault. This was a brightly sunny morning too. A commercial-size tug boat had to come from Coxen Hole to French Cay to pull it off, and as of this morning it’s still on the docks behind us. Not sure if the boat needs to be hauled for repairs but honestly I’m only spending enough time thinking about it to write this paragraph.

The “Russian Boat” that has way overstayed their welcome (soo many stories, most unfit for print) on the mooring ball in the lagoon behind the back docks ran aground after nearly hitting several of the boats on that dock this morning. They blamed the mooring line. Common sense storm preparedness is to put a safety line and/or anchor out for exactly this reason; mooring lines should not be blindly relied upon in any conditions, much less storm ones. They blithely allow their boat to drift toward the others, not bothering to disconnect themselves from the now broken mooring ball line nor dropping an anchor to halt their progress. Thankfully the boat ran aground before any of the marina dock boats were damaged. But it was very close and caused much distress on that dock. The Russians has been asked to leave every day for over a week now; hopefully this incident will galvanize the marinas and nearby resorts into taking coordinated action to get them out of resort waters and dive operations channels. Good riddance.

Meanwhile in the anchorage proper, two boats call for assistance and dock space however with completely full docks, they are turned away. One needs to be towed to safety, after refusing assistance overnight because they didn’t want to pay a rescue boat; now they need a tow boat however with no available dock space, it’s uncertain where they will be towed to. My word, what is with these people!? Everyone remotely paying attention knew this storm was coming.

Back to us: securely tied to the dock, tucked behind a wall of mangroves, a bridge between us and the Russian Boat, with plenty of what is needed, we’re hunkered down working away on our task lists. We are making solid progress yet still have much to do before the Seattle Boat Show