Predictions were for winds in the 20 kt range. Up anchor at around 10 and we headed south for Norman’s Cay, arriving just after noon. The weather was changing as predicted, we had some rain squalls on the leading edge of the front, nice job of rinsing the boat! And the winds started piping up as the day wore on. Our last stay at this spot was during a south blow, with winds in the 35 kt range, our most miserable night at anchor ever. This time around is not as bad, but not by much. Winds are more out of the NE than E and cranked up to the 20+kt zone, providing us with a delightful slop that kept us rolling from about 3 hours after we dropped the hook. The roll is borderline batten down, glasses still stay put as long as there’s a non-skid coaster beneath. There are 4 Selenes in the anchorage, Mystic Moon opted to stay behind in the marina at Highbourne, good choice on their part, they’ll be sleeping better than we will tonight! We were delighted to see Aries Too (cruising friends from our Halifax, NS stay) join the flotilla at Norman’s, and we chatted a bit with them on their arrival, and we’ll spend some time Thursday catching up.
We spent some time ashore in the afternoon, hiking around the island and revisiting the interesting ruins we saw on our 1st trip here two years ago. Not much has changed, a bit more overgrown, some local construction progressing in small steps, and MacDuff’s has been taken over by the Norman Cay Beach Club, but still the same place. Winds continued to build through the afternoon, reaching a nice steady 20 kts toward evening. Yes, we’re in the Bahamas for the passage of another front!
The Selene contingent at Norman’s decided on dinner out at the Norman’s Cay Beach Club restaurant. Reservations must be made by 3pm for dinner; they must know how big a dinner crowd they are having since they must get all their provisions in by plane or boat. The airstrip is just a few hundred feet from the restaurant, and frequently small planes fly in for lunch. We were surprised at the number of people in the place, on such a small sparsely inhabited island, we wondered where the people all came from! Dinner was good, the company was lots of fun, and the dinghy landings and launchings were a chinese fire drill with a bit of surf complicating the manuvering at shore. No dinghies wandered off, and everyone got away unscathed. Not dry, but unscathed!
We’re hoping the winds lay tomorrow, or at least clock some so our anchorage settles down a bit!
