Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


At 6:15 this morning while waiting for the weather forecast to be broadcast, Toucan Dream hailed us on SSB from Big Major, an island to the north of here. Bob said that we made a good decision in choosing to wait here as there were standing waves across all of the entrances to the bank. In their approach to the bank yesterday, their 15’ Boston Whaler they tow behind them got broadside to the waves on 2 occasions while transiting the entrance; not good. He said that they also saw funnel clouds dipping out of the clouds though none touch down near them. To top it off, the anchorage had 30 boats in it. After those descriptions, I think we made the right decision too. The last time we were in Big Major, there were only about 6 boats. I think that it could hold twice that many without any problems and possibly as many as 20 but 30 would be leaving a few with their sterns hanging out.

The forecast detailed more of the same for this area with waves in the Sound up to 14’ with no hope of relief until possibly this weekend. Although the rain wasn’t as prevalent today, the winds were stronger at a steady 25 kts gusting to over 30 at times. Its odd that after the wind has been howling at such a high intensity, when it finally dies to around 20 kts, it seems rather quiet. We’re well dug in and certainly not going to drag without a fight.

Needless to say, we didn’t go anywhere today and watched as boats came in from both ends of the anchorage before trying to anchor in the nasty conditions. Even in a well protected harbor, the wind waves from the fetch worked their way up to about 2’. Most of the boats are willing to do the Georgetown shuffle, back and forth across the harbor to which ever side has the best protection, but we are sticking it out on the town side where we can connect to the internet. Dale was able to catch up on a couple of his continuing medical education classes during the day, then I tried to catch up on all of our e-mails.

At one point we got a call via Skype from Gerry & Nicky. They told us that they have been scheduled to transit the Panama Canal on May 29 about 5pm. They gave us an internet site where you can watch the boats go through the canal. It’s at: www.pancanal.com/eng/photp/camera-java.html . It’s amazing what you can find on the internet these days.