Weather Ready

We had a very uncomfortable night last night.  It was very windy and this was our first real experience in high winds at anchor.  Not much sleep for me but the boat was still intact when I woke up this morning. It sounded like she was breaking apart (natural sounds I have been assured) but I figured even if we went down we were in 6 feet of water so we would just have to wait it out on the bridge!!  This morning we went over all of our options and decided that sooner or later we would experience bad weather so it may as well be now.  This way we could get more experience under our belts and have a plan in place for when it was unexpected.  My first thought of course was to turn tail and run but a calmer psyche explained everything (again) about wind direction and land and shallow water protection I decided might as well give 'er a go.

We have moved about 5 miles to Islamorada in another Bight that is more protected from the North winds that are predicted for the next 3 days.  The real bummer is it is going to be a long 3 days if the winds keep up at this speed because we can't dinghy to shore, unless we want to get soaked.  The REALLY bad part is that there is a Bass Pro Shops store ( that is my very favorite store) a dinghy ride away!!! 

We have 2 anchors set a 45 pound plow and a 35 pound danforth, with another 45 pound danforth at the ready just in case.  We also have our anchor alarm set.  So I guess we have done all we need to do.  We are again in 6' of water, so the bridge is always there, and all the sailboats here are welcome to join us.  There are a couple of power boats here so far.  Maybe more will come in later, we got here around 11am so we are in a primo spot.  Right now the winds have laid down a bit so I think I'll join Gary in checking out the neighbors.

Sounds like tomorrow is going to be even windier, so I am going to suck it up some more and hope that my acupressure wristbands continue to do their job.  As we can only read so much, have no TV , been married 41 years, we are going to learn to play a new card game!