It’s difficult to get a good photo of the weather conditions today as wind speed isn’t photogenic, but we are very happy we moved to a more protected anchorage at the beginning of the week.  The squall we were hiding from then did not turn out to be very substantial and I’m sure a few people who made the effort to move were not happy.  However, the front which came through last night made up for it.

During the night the winds reached over 30 kts in our anchorage and higher in the ones which aren’t this surrounded by hills breaking up the wind speed.  The photo above was taken at 2 pm and all looks well, but the winds are still in the high 20’s, gusting into the 30’s.  The sky is blue now, but overnight several squalls came through producing rain which sounded like buckets were being dumped on us.  It’s been interesting to listen to calls on the VHF radio warning other cruisers of everything from a large piece of a dock floating through an anchorage to loose dinghies to boat anchors dragging.

We had heard that we would be moving around to avoid squalls while in the Bahamas, but since we had such good weather while making our way south, we never had to worry about that.  However, during the time we’ve been in Georgetown there has been a squall in the forecast most of the time.  This is our second visit to a protected anchorage in the two weeks we’ve been here.  Most boats stay where they are and take their chances.  The regatta is beginning next week, and many boats have staked out their anchor spots close to the beaches where much of the action will take place.

This morning Mark took Daisy ashore in the dinghy with wind speeds in the high 20’s and they got soaked going to a small nearby beach.  Daisy was lucky, as I suspect a lot of boat dogs didn’t get taken out today.  Actually, Daisy seemed to know the weather was not very good.  Usually, when Mark starts to lower the dinghy she is at the top of the steps ready to jump in.  This morning she continued to sit by me in the salon while watching Mark prepare to go ashore.  I think if she could talk, she would have said, “That’s OK.  I can hold it.” 

The weather is predicted to be much better tomorrow and we hope to move back to an anchorage closer to town.  JoAnne has her SSB Radio test tomorrow.  Saturday we plan to attend a weather seminar presented by guru Chris Parker.  Never making plans too far ahead of time, we haven’t figured out yet when we’ll leave, but the plan is not to stay here for the Georgetown Regatta which begins next week.  At this point, it all depends on weather.   The temperature is great - still in the 70’s and 80’s. The regatta has a variety of activities beginning on March 1 and ending on March 13. 

This week we haven’t done much beyond relax.  We did go to an interesting workshop titled “Wireless Communication for Cruisers.”  We learned a few new things and heard about some possible solutions for phone and computer communication, but overall we’re fairly happy with what we have.  I’ve talked with Jennifer all but a couple nights on the Bahamas phone.  It costs less than $2 for each call, well worth the price.  We could be using the free MagicJack, but if the connection isn’t perfect she gets worried that we’ll lose it.  So, we stick with the reliable, although not free, Bahamas phone.  With our excellent wifi extender, we have been able to be online in almost all the places we’ve stopped. I had been using a $15 a week prepaid card for Harbour Wifi while we have been in Georgetown, but the signal does not reach this anchorage.  Luckily, some nice cruiser or person onshore has left his/her wifi connection open for others to use.  At this point, anyone with a wifi access point knows how to encrypt it to keep others from using it.  Of course there is always the chance that someone is allowing people online in order to get access to their computers, but I have a program which scrambles my signal, so I’m not worried about that.