Quick Update. George Town, Exuma Island, Bahamas. Sunday 8th April

Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Sat 7 Apr 2012 23:20

23:30.593N 075:45.574W

 

Our straightforward two day two night sail from Ts&Cs to Long Island, Bahamas didn’t quite go according to plan.  But then this is sailing and the wind and weather do have a mind of their own.  First 36 hours consisted of no wind whatsoever so we motored which is simply tedious but the sea was calm so no great hardship.  A couple of squalls overnight but none came too close so we barely noticed them.  Oh,. And a full moon.  Glorious.

 

Second night was flat calm and seemed similarly benign until we noticed a couple of squalls building.  We can see them on the radar and it is fascinating to watch the systems either appear on the screen, moving and changing shape as they pass.  Then lightening in the distance.  Try as we might to turn away from it it was determined to head our way.  In the end we had four hours of lightening all around us and an hour of torrential rain.  More torrential than anything we had seen before, monsoons included.  Thankfully we have great wet weather gear so stayed warm and mostly dry. 

 

Carol hates, hates, hates lightening and was once asked to hold on to a string of horses high on a mountain in Colorado during a violent electrical storm so that the chap in charge of them could attend to a problem with the one at the back.  No thunderstorm experience will ever match that for terror so this was not too dreadful by comparison.

 

Main thing was that it meant neither of us had much sleep that night but we caught up fairly quickly.

 

We were supposed to sail gently into Thompson Bay on Long island around noon with two days to spare before our friends Marija and Darren arrived.  Wind was from the one direction that made it a dodgy place to anchor so we had to go somewhere else.  The nearest somewhere else was another five hours away – George Town, Exuma Island.

 

So here we are having another adventure.  Details to follow.

 

Tomorrow we will leave early to meet our friends in Thompson Bay but they will be there before us.  Or maybe not because there is a strike at Nassau Airport.  At some point over the next few days we hope that the winds will blow us in the right direction and they will be able to fly in the right direction for us to meet up.