Hole up in Great Sale Cay

Day 12: Saturday March 7, 2015

We slept well.  This is a great anchorage with absolutely no waves or surge so the boat remained quiet all night.  The wind was basically from the Southwest.  I got up early and turned off the chartplotter.  We had left if on all night using the anchor drag alarm.  When we drop the anchor, we input that location and then enter a distance that allows for a certain amount of swing room before triggering an alarm.  It allows for peace of mind while sleeping.  The winds were light and we were up so the alarm was no longer needed.

We prepared our typical sausage gravy on a fresh homemade tortilla breakfast and were enjoying t

Moon over Great Sale Cay.  Typical Landscape

he quiet time when the wind began to increase and the rains began to fall.  I stuck my head out and found a very dark horizon to the north and northeast.  The winds continued to increase and the rain plummeted down.  We paid little attention for a while but when I looked out, I realized that we had dragged our anchor a distance of about 200 or 300 feet toward another boat anchored behind us.  I went out and started the motor in case we continued to drag and then using a hand bearing compass, I took sightings on two locations on opposite sides of us to be used to determine if we were still moving.  I also turned on the anchor alarm again.  It seemed to me that we were no longer dragging but for the remainder of the morning, I made frequent reference checks with the compass to make sure that we were stable.  I felt that I had plenty of anchor rode played out and that the anchor had finally caught firmly but just to be sure, I rigged another anchor to be set if we indeed started moving again. 

To make a long story short, the wind howled all day and well into the night.  It is amazing how much noise the rigging and other parts of the boat as the wind whistles by and the boat flexes.  As the day progressed the wind remained quite strong but we became more confident that our anchor was now holding.  We kept the anchor alarm all day just in case things got uglier. 

So what do you do in a small cabin while the winds howl and the boat swings from side to side?  Well you read, and check, and read, and check and use the computer until its battery dies, then you work on an electronic navigation course, and fix a meal, then do all of that again.  For an evening meal, we fixed pancakes and bacon which under these circumstances tasted really good.

We finally hit the sack at around 8:30, or at least I did.  Janine tried but the noises caused sleep to be elusive so she got back and read some more. 

So it was in Great Sale Key today.  Maybe tomorrow, however, a fellow came by and advised that the weather forecasts indicated that this weather would be with us until Monday.