Enough with the wind already

March 26, 2014.

We're sitting here anchored just to the East of Marsh Harbor.

Good protection and free wifi, what more could a boy want.  Yes, I know, I have that too.

When we arrived into the area we knew a fairly serious front was due to blast through. Four very protected havens popped into mind when we considered hiding from this weather system. We considered Little Harbor, Hopetown, Marsh Harbor and Treasure Cay.

Little Harbor was a bit too far south. Hopetowns moorings are claustrophobic in their proximity to each other and just not for us. The anchorage in Marsh Harbor can get pretty crowded and with the ferocity of the forecast I don't want to be anywhere near Johnny Mc'Cantanchor when the wind pipes up and starts to clock. It was the same thing for us with the anchorage inside Treasure Cay. Great anchorage, I just don't want to be there with a crowd.

Top left box is wind speed, 35 knots but at least its still sunny and 76 degrees

So here we sit. As forecast the wind blew stiffly from the northeast before clocking to south at 10 knots or less. When the front arrived in blew 20 to 25 from the southwest. We had about 2 miles of fetch but sitting here in 8 feet of water with a hundred feet of chain out we rode it comfortably. Because of the shallow depth the sea state could only build to 18 inches or less.

The wind is slowly dropping but so is the temperature, 64 degrees....yikes!

With a dozen of these small wavelets passing under the boat at a time we could feel nothing but the breeze. As the wind clocked to the west the fetch dropped to just over half a mile while the wind increased to the low thirties. The wind has continued to clock to the north and now the fetch is a quarter of a mile while the winds hover between 20 and 30 knots.

There was just enough rain yesterday to rinse off the boat. There’s only 3 other boats here, the closest of which is over 200 yards away. Perfect.

I've already got another Boat Name of the Day. “Land Escaper” While the name itself is nothing special its the whole package that makes it so good. The Captain of this particular vessel speaks with a very thick Spanish accent.

When he says the boats name it just rolls off his tongue almost as one word. “Landscaper”. In our neck of the woods a disproportionate number of landscapers are Mexicans. So between the name and the accent.....I hope he's just got a great sense of humor and this combination is intentional on his part. Otherwise this is really pretty awkward....