Kid boat invasion, and some stormy weather

Several kid boats (African Dream, Biscuits, Explorer, and Alpenglo) pulled in near us on the 2nd, so February 3rd saw us joining some of those other families on the beach. The ladies and kids enjoyed the sun and sand while a few of the guys went spearfishing. That afternoon, I hitched a ride to town for some grocery shopping with the crew on African Dream while Patrick worked on our dinghy motor (turns out the intake tube was clogged with sand!) The shore team had a drink at SCYC and enjoyed watching the nurse sharks, before returning back to the anchorage.

Alpenglo had some family visitors aboard who had to head to the airport before we really got a chance to get to know them. Those visitors did get a great photo of the Top of the Majors anchorage from their plane as they flew home to the US, though, and I’m so glad they shared it with all of us! (Aren’t those colors amazing?!)

Sadly, the great weather couldn’t stick around. On the 4th there were squalls moving in. Some of the guys went spearfishing again but the visibility wasn’t great. The rest of the day was just boat stuff – cleaning, charging batteries, updating the blog, that sort of thing.

At some point after dark, the breeze shifted abruptly about 90 degrees, and between that wind shift and the current, we somehow got into a weird spot. It seemed like our anchor chain might have wrapped itself around our keel (the depth was pretty shallow, so it’s possible) or otherwise held us in a strange position relative to the other boats. Patrick managed to get that sorted out somehow by messing with the snubber and chain. We finally decided that our anchor may have dragged but re-set. We talked with Brad on Biscuits next to us (he saw our lights and heard us talking so came out to check on things!) and we all determined it would definitely be okay for the night, but that we would re-anchor in the morning. I was a little nervous after that, since the wind was still feisty and switching directions, so I stayed up late watching the anchor alarm and the boats around us to be certain we were staying put!

The next day we re-anchored the boat during a calm morning, just to make sure we were well set for the next blow coming that night. Marshall on Rex invited us over to fill up our water jerry cans. Rex was having some battery issues so were running their generator a lot more than usual to keep the batteries charged. They wanted to maximize the power usage and were happy to make some extra water for us with their watermaker! It was nice and quick, and we sure appreciated being able to add about 12 gallons to our tanks without having to go to town to get water. Another boat in the area, Keilani, came by to say hello to all of us, and it was fun to chat with them too.

Later in the day, the winds picked up again. We got the boat ready for the high winds – stashed loose things, pulled all clothing items off the lifelines, etc. We hung up some string lights in the cockpit so it would be easier for other boats to judge distance from us in the dark, and others did the same. Everyone in the anchorage was happy to keep in touch with one another on WhatsApp or the radio as needed. It was nice to know we were all in it together! The lightning storm was also pretty epic; it’s been a long time since we’ve seen lightning and heard thunder.

The next morning we were all checking in to see how everyone fared. Basically it blew like stink all night but everyone was good. The highest wind that we saw on the box was 46 knots, which is nothing to sneeze at.

For most of the day on the 6th, we treated ourselves to unlimited Starlink in order to stay busy. It kept blowing in the 20s for most of the day with gusts into the 30s, and it was a pretty day out despite some rain squalls here and there.

We were pretty weary of the wind and constant sailing on the anchor, so we were hopeful it would be less crazy overnight than predicted…but it didn’t look likely.

We were also ready to move on to a new place! Guess we’d see how that plan might work out the following day. For now, it was card games and settling in for another windy overnight.