We received Chris Parker’s weather forecast by sailmail yesterday evening and listened to his forecast this morning on SSB. He has been telling us of a tropical wave off the coast of Venezuela. In his forecast last night, it seems it could cross Cuba and he reckoned there is a 30 percent chance it could develop into a tropical depression. In any case, we can expect squalls throughout most of the Bahamas from late tomorrow for several days with winds that could be up to 40-50 knots. So, we have decided to seek a safe harbour to wait it out and see what happens. We are heading to Georgetown on Great Exuma, with a current ETA of about midday tomorrow. Sadly San Salvadore is a far cry from a ‘hurricane hole’ so we had to skip it this time.

We left Mayaguana this morning in very light winds under engine. Once round the end of the island, we raised the mainsail to take advantage of the following wind that had picked up to around 12 knots but because it was behind us, we preferred to motor-sail to make good speed. Shortly afterwards, a black cloud appeared and we were experiencing much stronger winds, heavy rain, thunder and lightening! Howard was on the helm and got soaked but the boat and he coped admirably. Top wind strength seen was 33 knots! Fortunately the squally weather passed, the sun came out again and winds returned to the steady 8-12 knot range; life was a lot more peaceful again and Fred is back at the helm.

So, we are fine. Georgetown seems to have lots to offer; we are looking forward to exploring it a bit.