Unlike the Caribbean, the Bahamas are impacted by frontal systems much like the US. I wanted to give you a real life example in the day of a life life of a cruiser and how we manage the boat during these weather events. It is funny because sometimes we will talk about an arriving front for days and it is a non-event and smaller fronts, like we are in now, pack a punch. We have had a front sitting on us for the last day, so the Elizabeth Harbour anchorage has been on the receiving end of some big wind and rain. One of the reasons so many boats come here is there are very few places within a day’s sail that provide close to 360 degrees of protection. The key to that protection is to move to the Stocking Island side when the wind has an easterly component and Great Exuma side when there is a westerly component, otherwise you get some waves if there is much wind. The harbour is diagonal to north, therefore there is less protection if the wind is from the SE or NW. Today is one of those rare occasions it is blowing 20 to 30 knots from the SE. We have a good spot near Stocking Island keeping us out of some of the larger waves. The wind is forecasted to clock all night and be out West at sunrise. Because of our proximity to Stocking, we have to be careful not to drag into the shallows when the West wind arrives. If we have velocity in the morning, we will be off to the Exuma side. The good news is we have had a lot of rain and the decks are salt free!
