Strong Winds

April 20

There is a tropical disturbance off in the Atlantic and we are starting to get winds and waves from it. We are comfortable on the boat, tucked up in a place that protects us from any waves, but the dinghy ride we took to town yesterday was a different story. The ride there was fine, we sort of surfed with the waves. Back was hell. The wind had picked up some and we were headed into the wind waves. I t was so rough The dinghy was almost folded in half from the force of the waves and water continually splashed up all over us and into the boat.I had been treating the ride as a bit of a joy ride but that wan't the case. So much water came in that all our groceries, my purse, camera ect were filled with water, and the dinghy was swamped. Salt water had filled the bag of potatoes, and carrots, my camera appears to be dead (I'm hoping it dries out and works again) luckily my IPhone survived and is still working. I have stuff spread out all over the boat trying to dry it all out. And things wet with salt water does not dry out easily. I guess all the salt residue keeps attracting moisture from the air.

So the dinghy is a problem. It has sprung another leak (we've patched it 3 times so far) and it does not handle waves because of it's design. Lots of other boats dinghies are buzzing back and forth with no problems. We won't be going back across the harbor to Georgetown until the rough seas let up. Which sounds like it could be a week or more. Plus for now only a few pictures I took before the joy ride. If the camera is dead for good I guess it will force me to get out the big SLR camera Michael gave me for Christmas that I have barely used because it is so intimidating. 

April 23

Camera is officially dead, and the winds have been howling, particuarly at night. Sunday is supposed to be the worst, with lots of squalls expected to come thru at night. Our anchor has held well so far, so it is pretty secure, but we have not endured tropical squalls yet. I'm not looking forward to it. Next blog hopefully has pictures from the SLR as well as a report on how Sunday night went. From here we start our route back, the exact path is still under discussion, and more importantly, to be determined by winds. By the time we are home we will have explored all but a  few southern islands of the Bahamas, but no trips further south..