We’ve had the pleasure of having Mary Beth’s parents with us this week. We are blessed that they were able to find the time to get down here and are still able to enjoy being on the boat. We so enjoyed having them with us and sharing our cruising life with them. We had lovely calm weather (except for the day of torrential rain and storm with 35 knot winds!). My family has had sailboats since I was 3 years old, so we blame them for my desire to sail the ocean blue!
MB's parents at the helm:
As those of you who have been reading our blogs know, our daily plans are very weather dependent, and this week has been no different. However, the forecasts have been more inaccurate and less in agreement than normal lately (which is quite an accomplishment). We have one expert who most boaters use who gives detailed forecasts on the radio daily and we also have 3 or 4 weather apps that we use. Most days they all pretty much agree on the basics with some slight variation in wind speed, timing or direction. This week, however, they are totally different. The predicted wind directions are completely opposite in some cases and the wind speed predictions have also been totally different. If the wind is only 10-15 knots or so, it’s not a real big deal because the seas won’t be terrible, but depending on the wind direction and the amount of open water, an anchorage may still be somewhat uncomfortable. However, if it really blows harder than expected and/or in an unforecasted direction, it can be miserable or even dangerous. Today for example, one source is predicting 30 knot gusts. If you anchor somewhere that is open to that, the crew will be miserable and the boat (and crew) can be at risk of damage. The other sources are not predicting anything like that. Who’s right?
Most of the places to anchor in the Bahamas offer protection from wind and seas in only one or two compass directions. For example, most of the anchorages in the Abacos where we are now have good protection from East winds, usually from NE to SE. There are a few “hurricane holes” that offer at least some protection from all directions. The name hurricane hole is based on the fact that a hurricane passing over will blow from all directions as it passes over since it is a rotational storm. Most of the hurricane hole anchorages are adjacent to settlements (towns) and often have very limited places to anchor but they usually do have moorings that we can tie to for a fee. A good mooring consists of a large concrete block (like 500 to 1000 lbs large) with a heavy, well galvanized eye set into it. A heavy chain or rope then connects the block to a float on the surface and if you are lucky and heavy line called a pendant will be attached to the float and can be attached to the boat. We do not like moorings because the chain, connections and pendant usually cannot be inspected to determine its condition.
So why is all this important? Our preference is to anchor in a remote spot protected from the wind where there are only a few other boats, or none at all. If a weather forecast predicts strong winds, this may drive us into a hurricane hole where we have to pick up a mooring, are surrounded by boats and have to pay money for the mooring. If it turns out the forecasts are right and we get the strong winds, we are relieved. If it turns out they are wrong, we are grumpy to be somewhere we didn’t really want to be and packed into a mooring field with too many boats that are too close together.
There are some advantages to being in these anchorages with only moorings. There is usually a settlement at these places, and it’s fun to wander around . They usually have some restaurants, maybe a grocery store or laundromat, some shops and some interesting homes and buildings. For example, Hopetown has a kerosene burning lighthouse that is still manned. It is one of two in the world. Those of you who are campers and use Coleman lanterns will appreciate that the mantles for the lighthouse are custom made by Coleman for the Hopetown lighthouse. Coleman is the only company in the world that still has expertise in large kerosene mantle lights. One little detail that I found funny was that they have to cover the windows during the day because the lenses that focus the light from the lighthouse also focus the sun onto the burner during the day and will ignite that and potentially heat up the kerosene to the point it could flash and burn the whole thing up.
While MB’s parents were here we went into a place called Treasure Cay which is one of the “hurricane holes”. We picked up a mooring there because very heavy rain and strong winds were forecast. In this case the forecast was right (they actually under-forecasted the wind), and it was a good thing we had gone there. We experienced the hardest and most sustained rain (about 12 hours) we have seen on the entire trip, and it was delivered courtesy of lightening and winds up to 35 knots (about 39 mph). Other areas in the Bahamas clocked up to 110 mph gusts (hurricane strength) and boats were damaged. One unattended boat in our anchorage had a sail come loose in the storm and it was eventually shredded by the wind. We had some tense moments when the sail first escaped from its tightly rolled state because the unattended boat of course wanted to sail now that part of its sail was out. We were concerned it would break free of its mooring. We were directly downwind from it, so we kept someone outside watching with the key ready to start the engine and prepared as best we could to protect our boat should that one decide to “attack” us. A few people from other boats drove their dinghies over to this boat and tried to secure the sail. It took three different attempts with more people to finally get it subdued. We were surprised the sail lasted as long as it did. It took an hour or more of punishment before it decided to become a small flag instead of a large and dangerous sail. We felt like it chose wisely in deciding to become a flag and we were finally able to get some sleep.
A peaceful anchorage is a beautiful thing!
