Last night, as we were walking back to the boat, I heard Christmas music coming from a shop in Nanny Cay Marina. I think this music was the siren's song for the annual Christmas winds. Each winter (usually in December), the winds pick up in these islands and create some unsettled weather. And they arrived this year, right on cue.
I wish we had a better idea of how strong the winds were blowing today. Unfortunately, the wind indicator on "Moonshine" doesn't seem to work. We were seeing whitecaps all around us and the gauge only showed 12 knots.
Our original idea was to sail all the way to North Sound on Virgin Gorda but it was so unpleasant on the way that we bailed on that plan. Our first backup was Cooper Island. The anchorage there is pretty exposed so it's not usually recommended in high winds. Sure enough, once we got close enough we could see the other boats bouncing around like they were in a rock tumbler.
The next backup plan brought us to Marina Cay, about an hour's ride away. I could lie and say that we sailed the whole way, but we brought the sail down at Cooper and decided just motor for the rest of the day.
When the guys came out this evening to pick up our mooring fee, I asked if they knew how high the winds were today. They were consistently in the 30 knots per hour range - with gusts near 40! The Beaufort scale lists 28 - 33 knots as "Near Gale" and 34 - 40 knots as "Gale" force winds. I think it's perfectly acceptable to use a motor in those conditions.
Oddly, I wasn't really scared. Just very wet and cold. As we were crossing the channel, the occasional wave would break over the bow and spray us with sea water. More expensive boats are built to protect sailors from spray and rain. Not ours. I guess you get what you pay for.
Below is a shot of our new neighbors. I'm guessing they kept warm and dry in today's weather!
Posted with Blogsy
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