Last night was miserable

Sat. 4/14 

I could not sleep for the crazy winds and rain that continued to push through.  Though we are in a ‘protected’ anchorage here at Big Majors in Staniel Cay, the winds were a steady 30 knots, and many, many gusts were even higher.  We were swinging on the anchor every which way, so there was no sleep to be had.  I read an entire novel last night in between my attempts to doze.  We even clocked Windy pouring in 20 amps in all the terrible wind.  We had two anchor alarms set, in case we were to drag, but even with that, I couldn’t sleep.  I laid there reading with my jaw clenched and stomach clenched.  I could not relax for the life of me. 

The sun has shone since late morning, but I have yet to go out and enjoy it.  First of all, the wind is still a steady 20-25 knots, with gusts even higher.  I have just been changing laundry trying to get it all dry.  The good news is in this wind, things are drying quickly.  I got the mattress pads back on our bed, and the bed remade.  I made French toast with Rhonda’s cinnamon bread.  I dipped it in egg with coconut water for something different.  After I cleaned up the galley, I made a batch of salsa, then started putting the salon back together.  I really need to shower, but we are on water conservation at the moment.  Donnie needs to refill the port tank with our jerry jugs.  In all the rain yesterday, we didn’t catch one drop, as we didn’t get our ‘clay dams’ set out on the gunnels.  Matt & Karie may have collected some last night, as they got their rain catcher system set up before bed.  In the gully washer yesterday afternoon, Pam and Stephen managed to collect about 10 gallons.  I think they have a water maker on board, but Stephen wanted it to clean his boat.  The good news in all the rain yesterday, the salt-crusted topsides were all washed off, and I was able to mop my floors down below.  At least there’s that.

Donnie has worked on the last hour writing down each leg of our trip and writing down the nautical miles travelled.  He was sitting in the cockpit and using the GPS.  He was working backwards, and was all the way back to Nassau, only to have the paper he was writing on blow over into the ocean….and that’s just how the day is going today, so far!  He needs my help pouring the jerry jugs into the port side water tank.  That will give us another 20 gallons for now.  We can buy water in the Bahamas, but it’s anywhere from 50 cents to a $1.00/gallon. 

After we filled the port tank, Matt came over to see if Donnie could come out to play….they went exploring in a cave he had found, and then they dove for conch.  They came home with three legal ones, but I had no interest in beating them and cooking them!  He cleaned them, and we gave them to Matt and Karie. 

I fixed Chicken Caccitore for dinner for all of us, and we finished our game of dominoes from the other night.  Matt dominated- it wasn’t even close, but we had fun hanging out with them. 

The wind continued to crank all night long, but our anchor was well buried, so no real danger of dragging.  The plan for tomorrow is to visit the one and only church at Staniel Cay, Mt. Olive Baptist Church, and then head to Black Pointe in the afternoon.  It’s only a five mile sail, and it will likely be our southernmost point.  It’s time to start thinking about turning around and heading back north already L. G’nite y’all.