Mayaguana, Bahamas
22.19.576N
73.01.816W
Christmas Day. Dale let me sleep in since I was up monitoring the wind during the night. It had picked up to 22-23 kts. steadily for awhile but then tapered off again. The front we've been waiting for isn't supposed to come through until tonight or tomorrow morning. We don't think we dragged anchor last night but if we did, it wasn't by very much.
We started our day by calling our children. It was wonderful to hear their voices and learn that Michelle (daughter) and James (son) were spending it together with Stephanie and her family (James' girlfriend). Kyle (son), a fireman, was still at work but we were able to speak with Veronica (who's expecting our 3rd grandbaby) and Valerie (our 1st grandchild). Valerie was very excited about getting her ears pierced. Alayna (our 2nd grandchild) was still asleep. Veronica said that the pregnancy was going well but that she was tired from chasing after the other two. We weren't able to find April (daughter), a graduate student, so we'll send her an e-mail as well as my parents (who just moved to Texas). Robbie, Dale's sister, didn't pick up the phone so we figure that she and her family are in Oregon for Christmas. We also spoke with our friends, Fred & Geri and Gerry & Nicky. Now that we've used our allotment of satellite minutes for the next 5 months, I feel better.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. I started re-reading the guide to the Turks and Caicos, the next country we're visiting. It's a small country that most cruisers just check in, pass across their banks, then check out as they continue on their way to Luperon in the Dominican Republic. I'd like to spend a couple of days there visiting their land and sea parks. Elaine (from Doc-No-More) agreed with me (or perhaps she was looking for me to validate her argument to Roger) that it would be nice to spend some time there as well. Rick & Connie (from Calaloo) however, would like to bypass the country totally by making another overnight trip around the island nation, anchoring on the banks, then continuing on to Luperon. Regardless of what the final decision is, no one is moving until Tuesday, after the front moves through and the wind and waves quiet down.
In the meantime, Doc-No-More's has been having a problem with vibration loosening a screw that holds a brush in place on their generator. Dale's soldered a broken wire for them a couple of times and came up with an idea to perhaps alleviate some of the problem, so we visited with them for awhile this afternoon. Unfortunately, neither Dale nor Roger had a longer bolt to use with a locking nut to keep things in place. So he'll just have to keep patching it back together for them until we can get to a place where they can find what they need. Dale said that he didn't know who was happier when he fixed it this last time, Roger or Elaine.
Tonight, with some lightening on the horizon, we've let out an extra length of anchor chain to help hold us in place. We've done all that we can to secure ourselves and don't anticipate any problems but when you're completely surrounded by reef as your only protection, it's hard not to be a little apprehensive when a big blow is coming your way.
