10 to 50 knots in 5 minutes

Mandalay
Robin & Jenny Martin
Wed 28 Mar 2012 15:38

We are now retracing our track heading north back up through the Bahamas.
We and a great couple of weeks with Charlie and Serena cruising around the Exumas. The weather was mixed for them with mostly brisk winds providing us with some good sailing. They enjoyed the remoteness of the Cays and the beauty of the Bahamas. We were able to get little more than a few basics for the larder along the way but amazingly Charlie was able to "follow" the Barcelona GP if only on Jen's kindle!
They had outings to the pigs in Big Major Bay when one of the pigs jumped into the tender, Charlie swam with the turtles and the nurse sharks and we fed the Iguanas on Allen Cay. Our passage to Nassau was fast with the wind on the quarter and all too soon we were saying good bye from the Harbour Club Marina for their flight home.
Now in Marsh Harbour and catching up with admin and boat jobs.

We had a nasty storm two nights ago. We went to bed early having done an overnighter from Nassau, but Robbie ever ready, had a plan incase we dragged our anchor in the night. We knew to expect strong winds but had no idea that it would be as violent as it turned out to be. It went from flat calm to a blistering wind of up 45 knots with thunder, lighting and driving rain all at the same time. It lasted an hour exactly and then returned to flat calm again. Our 60lb Bruce anchor did a great job and never budged an inch. Next mornings cruiser's net was full of requests from boaters to look for kit lost during the storm. A couple of boats did drag around the harbour but fortunately no big damage done. Debriefing over coffee, in Snappers with Tony and Christine Diment off Pelagia we decided that we would always take heed whenever Chris Parker (SSB weather forecaster) mentioned squalls again, as Tony said, a better description would have been a tempest!
We now feel as though we are on our way home with the outline plan to return to the East Coast of US for April to prepare for our crossing to Bermuda early May. We then meet up with Ken and Sally Drane from Topsham and Ken is going to sail with us on to the Azores. We hope to explore the Azores for a couple of weeks before embarking on our final leg to the UK early July. It seems to have come round all too quickly.

Photos
Chas meets the pigs in Big Major's Spot, darado for supper, nurse sharks in the shallows and the iguanas of Allen Cay

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