Squally Olga
Irie
Sun 16 Dec 2007 16:34
|
Position 18 27 70N 64 31 70W Marina
Cay
Wednesday 12th Dec
We moved into Nanny Cay on Monday night. This
was mainly to catch up with Geoff's school chum James who runs the
Virgin Trader charter business from the
marina, and also so that Geoff could dive the wreck of the steamship Rhone on
Tuesday. We had a great evening in Peg Legs restaurant with James and Annie,
while outside the wind howled and torrential downpours blew through the
moored boats. Just north of the Virgins,a large low was tracking westwards,
developing nastily until becoming named storm Olga the following morning
as it passed over Hispaniola. The weather meant that Tuesday's dive was
off, necessitating a tourist day in Roadtown. Geoff and Val visited
the original Governer's House, now a fascinating museum, while we caught up
with Terry and Christine on Teka Nova, an ARC boat we'd met up with earlier in
the year.
By Wednesday mornig, Olga was well on the
way to the west, but leaving a legacy of aggresive squalls. The plan was to
drop Geoff and Val on Thursday at Trellis Bay which is an easy two
minutes walk from the airport with an overnight stop on the way at
Marina Cay a nearby anchorage. We had a lumpy passage upwind in 25 knots of
wind, but all was fine untill a black squall of rain brought 40 knots of wind,
flipping the dinghy and parting the towing bridle with a noise like a
gunshot. This delayed progress for 20 minutes or so while the wind howled,
the rain lashed and the dinghy was recovered and brought aboard, where it
probably should have resided in the first place.
Pictures: Geoff looking for the sun, Santa
chilling in Roadtown, Before Olga
   |