Today is Tuesday, February 3, 2009 and another one of those windy cold fronts has blown over from Florida. There is so much wind and choppy waves in our anchorage here in front of Thunderball Grotto, we have decided to spend the morning on the boat reading and puttering around.
As you know, we are just learning about these cold fronts and have been pretty lucky with our boat and the boats around us staying anchored securely throughout the heavy winds and choppy waters. Well, that ended today. As I spent the morning trying to read huddled out in the cockpit, I watched our neighboring boat get closer and closer. John, from his reading spot on the vee berth, assured me that our anchor was sound and we didn’t need to worry about the other boats. I, however, kept watching and wondering if we should hang our bumpers out along the side of the boat—such a worrier I am! Maybe worrying women are not a bad thing—the lady on our neighboring boat crawled out into their cockpit too. As their boat continued to move closer and closer to ours (slow motion drama), she disappeared down below. Seconds later she reappeared with her foul weather gear on and her husband in tow. They got right to work retrieving their failing anchor and motoring to stay off the side of our boat. Off they went to find another anchorage. Phew! I got back into reading again when I noticed the trawler on our other side getting closer. GEEZ! Was I imagining things? No, the trawler was definitely dragging back away from us and the sailboat in front of us seemed to be dragging back toward us. As I watched, the sailboat pulled up its anchor and began circling around the harbour trying to find a better spot to reset its anchor. John came up into the cockpit to watch the drama. Each time the sailboat motored near us in their search for a new anchor spot, we frowned but what can you do? Somehow, we thought running out on the deck and waving our arms saying “Shoo, shoo, go away!” didn’t seem like the neighborly thing to do. Finally, the sailboat anchored again a safe distance from us. Meanwhile, the trawler folks came out and reset their anchor a good distance on the other side of us. Wow! What a morning. We were one of five boats anchored here and only our boat and the Island Packet in front of us stayed securely anchored! Time to get off the boat and quit worrying!
The winds continued out of the north, but had calmed a bit. We grabbed our shore gear: the laptop, the dominoes, the back gammon set, our books, and the last of our cash (no ATMs on Staniel Cay!). Club Thunderball was a short dinghy ride from us and they have pizza and free internet. We hung out at Club Thunderball, ate the pizza (yum), wrote some blog entries, answered some email, and met some new folks. One young couple in their early twenties from Michigan were planning their wedding. Their parents were flying into the little airport on Staniel Cay and had rented a beach house. We met a guy and his two middle-school-aged sons from Maine—interesting folks.
This is how our anchorage looked from Club Thunderball at sunset today. It looks calm enough. Guess we will take advantage of those north winds to sail us south to Little Farmers Cay, warmer weather, and ATMs.
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