Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:28:57 PM Location: Nassau Yacht Anchorage Latitude is 25 degrees 4.826 minutes north. Longitude is 77 degrees 20.793 minutes west. This weather observation was taken on Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:28:38 PM local time. Observation location: Nassau Yacht Anchorage. Latitude is 25 degrees 4.826 minutes north. Longitude is 77 degrees 20.794 minutes west. The air temperature is 79, and water temperature is 0 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast is Sunny, Windy. The current weather is dry. The sky is scattered clouds (10 - 50% clouds). The wind is 17 knots from the east. The visibility is 8 nautical miles. The wave height is 1 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1022 millibars and steady. I made a snap decision this morning after looking at the BuoyWeather forecast. It called for winds steadly rising over the next few days to the high 20's and a shift from the east to the south. The Highborne Cay anchorage is well protected from the east and some degrees north or south of east, but not from the SE through the South. So, one way or another, I had to move. I consulted with my friends on Dubhe and said either we would have to move to the anchorage at the north end of Highborne Cay, or make a break for it. It was too late in the day (08:45) for them to make a break for it. They are in a 35 ft sailboat. So, I got off the hook in record time. By 09:30 I was underway. This included taking a flopper stopper up and putting it away, and raising the dinghy. I'm getting good. The only thing I forgot was the portholes in the master cabin and head. I wouldn't find out about that until later. The wind and waves were out of the east with the waves building from 2 ft to 5 ft wind chop as we went across the banks. The trip included crossing the Yellow Banks where the 20 ft depth dropped to 9 under the keel. We could not put the birds in the water because it was too shallow, so we really rocked and rolled all the way. The place was a mess with stuff flying all over the galley. Nicholas is such a trooper. Once we got into deep (20 ft) water, I headed to the galley to scramble up some eggs. All of a sudden he came down and looked at me. He can't talk, but when he wants something, he either stares at what he wants, or me. I knew he was trying to tell me something. So, I went up to the wheelhouse and sure enough, the nav computer alarm was going off about being back under 20 ft. What a team. As we approached the east end of Nassau, the nav computer alarm was constantly sounding as we went above and below 20 ft where the alarm is set, and the CO alarm in the master cabin went off. UGH. That is when I found out about the portholes. Yup, the alarm got wet with salt water and was going nuts. It never fails. One stressor leads to another. I was following the Explorer Charts route and only dodged an obvious coral head once. The route at the east end of Nassau went directly over 0 meter coral heads according to the chart. So, that required close attention and I figured out it was only an approximation and that the chart was indead correct as you got closer. The route kept you in 18 ft under the keel until you got close, then the chart was more accurate and it was better to find your own way. Who knew? We made it into the channel and called the Nassau Port Control to ask permission to enter and proceed to the anchorage. No problem. We went by some boats anchored at the east end, some in the middle and got to the official Yacht anchorage and no one was there. It is right behind the big cruise boat piers and so has good protection from the east winds, so I dropped the hook. I kept the instruments on as I went around the boat and cleaned up. I had to change the bedding since it got salt water wet. UGH! I cleaned up the kitchen, noted my position on the shore and headed down for a nap. Well, a peak or two at the depth told me we were dragging and only had 2 ft under the keel. Time to move. We hauled anchor and went back to the middle anchorage. We found out that even though there were not many boats there, the bottom was moddled with really shallow areas and the resident boats occupied all the holes. So we went back to the Yacht anchorage. This time we dropped the anchor in the ship's turning basin in 35 ft of water and backed into the designated area outside the buoys. We have a red buoy off our port stern about 200 ft. This time we are stuck, at least according to my eyeballing the shore, the depth guage and the GPS. It will still be a restless night. Now we are stuck. The weather we ran from has not gone away. We are just in a better anchorage and a few miles closer to the states. According to the latest BuoyWeather, it will be a week before good wind and waves return. And, here we have no place to land the dinghy. We are stuck on board. At least I think so. I see one dinghy tied to the big concrete dock ahead. Maybe there is some hope. The wind is now over 20 knots. I'm glad we moved. David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com