Hey man its blowing hard.
Oriole
Mon 23 Jan 2006 16:49
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Well, here we are back in St Maarten. We had
a dive on a reef and wreck in Anguilla early on Monday morning and by the time
we got back to Oriole there were huge swells from the northwest roaring
into the anchorage and pounding on the beach.
Road Bay, Anguilla before the swells started.
The swell built throughout the day making life
aboard pretty uncomfortable and by early afternoon we retired 15 miles back to
the tranquility of the Lagoon at St Maarten. The swells, due to a big North
Atlantic storm had been forecast, and so were the strong winds that
are now buffeting us and will do for a few more days. Yesterday we had
peak gusts of 40 knots and the tops of the superyacht masts, we hear, were
recording 60 knots. The Lagoon is very crowded and about 50 yachts
accompanied us through the bridge on Monday evening when it opened. Just as we
were turning in last night a large yacht upwind of us started to drag its
anchor and its size and the expertise of its crew did not appear to be
related, but everything settled down eventually. Its rather like being
anchored in a Scottish loch in a gale, but a bit warmer. Dinghy work is
distinctly wet!
Unlike the depressions at home which govern our
winds and are relatively shortlived we are under the influence of a stationary
high to the north and a stationary low over South America with the wind howling
between them, and neither are going anywhere until later in the week, so I guess
we will stay here for the time being. This is fairly normal for this time
of year, but just a bit stronger than usual.
Anyone thinking that life in the Caribbean is
always about gently lapping blue seas on white coral sand should have another
think. Those conditions are unlikely to re-appear for a few days at
least.
Andrew left us on Thursday and flew back to
Antigua for a job interview and by 1000 on Friday he rang us to inform us that
he was now First Mate of Mirabella V, which for the unititiated is a 70 meter
sloop and the largest sloop (single mast) afloat. He is pretty chuffed and so are we!
Mirabella V
We were very sad to see him go but hope we will
catch up with Mirabella V somewhere during their busy Caribbean charter season.
During the month that he was with us he did most of the manouvering and coming
alongside. Handing over the wheel in this situation normally reduces
the skipper, who likes to do it himself, to a quivering wreck. Whether he
is now more laid back in his old age or whether he now has total confidence in
Andrew's skills is unclear, but suffice it to say both were very relaxed.
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