Hurricane Warning

Date: 22nd July 2020
Location: Tyrell Bay, Carriacou

Well here it comes. The reason Caribbean cruising yachts are normally lifted out by now is that it is hurricane season. The reason they head south to Trinidad or Grenada is because most storms and hurricanes pass further north. However, at present there is a named tropical storm rapidly approaching us. Storm Gonzalo is two days away and we are directly on its track. This is what it looks like tonight.

These things start off as minor depressions off Africa. They move west across the Atlantic over the warm seas picking up more and more energy. Every year a dozen or so make it across to the Caribbean island chain and up the east coast of the US. This is the first major one of the year and it's heading our way.

So what can we do?

1. Lift out and get tied down in a boatyard. We have a booking down in Grenada for 1st August. There we will be in a welded one piece cradle and covered by our insurance. Here in Carriacou the main boatyard has no cradles so hence no insurance. We consider this fairly exposed yard too much of a risk.

2. Put out more anchors and hold tight here in the bay. There is much uncertainty over how strong the winds might be and where they might come from so there risk associated with this too. Other boats might drag onto us.

3. Run south. This is the usual choice as winds are less strong to the south. But this one is tracking well south anyway so running south might take us into its path and anyway you soon reach South America and Venezuela which has its own issues.

4. Head into the mangroves here in Carriacou. This is our chosen option.

Mangroves are masses of bushy things with their strong roots in the salt water. The wind whistles over them or is dissipated to a large extent as it hits them.  They look like this.

And here is a picture of the mangroves here.

Our anchorage is off to the left so we don't have far to go. The boatyard is in the foreground. We'll stick our nose deep into the roots, drop a stern anchor and tie into the mangroves. Thing is, lots of other boats will be doing the same thing including our friends on English Rose and Victoria's Ghost. We'll end up tied together rafted to our neighbours. We'll take off anything that provides windage and hope for the best. You can follow the storm here.

In other news we've just celebrated our 40th (fortieth) wedding anniversary with a romantic luncheon at Paradise Beach Club. 40 years. Amazing! What adventures we've had.

G4J. Early morning on uninhabited Sandy Island.

What a great choice I made.

Paradise Beach Club.

Oh yes. And Gilly "I hate sewing" has finally completed the hurricane cover. Well done indeed!

The mega cover. Five winches, a bolt rope and 36 tie downs. Amazing.

So, that's it for now as we move our thoughts to the impending storm. Big winds with loads of rain or will it all prove to be much ado about nothing? Hopefully you'll get another blog telling how we fared.