Storms at Fish Cay, Acklins

Thursday, May 3, 2007

022-28.680 N
074-14.700 W

Ahoy from stormy Fish Cay in the Acklins, Bahamas!

Yesterday dawned with towering cumulonimbus (Cb for you weather geeks) surrounding us.  These are the clouds that soar into the sky and spawn thunderstorms.  If you're a pilot or underway in a sailboat, you probably try to route yourselves around them.  When you're at anchor, you get what comes at you.  The earlier in the day that them form, the better the chance for severe storms, so seeing them at dawn isn't a good thing.

At 8 AM I collected the weather faxes over the SSB and saw that a low pressure trough had formed above us.  A trough is an elongated area of low pressure that extends over hundreds of miles as opposed to a typical low pressure system which has a distinct center.  If you're located by the low or under the trough, you will probably experience squally weather. 

We had on-and-off rain shower all day long.  The good thing was that they typically didn't have a lot of wind with them and the boat got washed off very well.  In the afternoon it even cleared up for long enough to allow us to get a dive in.  We hoped that by the evening that the system would have drifted away and we would have a good nights sleep.  We had a nice dinner and watched an episode of "24" on DVD.  Then at about 9 PM the winds suddenly picked up and I headed above to see what was going on.

I fired up the radar and saw that we were surrounded by rain.  I had the radar on the 12 mile setting (you see an area 24 miles in diameter) and it was FULL of rain.  We were actually in a dry pocket, but I knew that wouldn't last.  When I overlaid the chart of the area, I could see that the storm was contained within the Bight of the Acklins, which is where we're anchored.  The Bight of the Acklins is bounded by Crooked Island to the N and Acklins Island to the E and S.  The bight is shallow and the water is much warmer than the surrounding water.  I guessed that the warm, moist air was being drawn up into the trough and forming these huge thunderheads.  What was even worse was that the storms weren't really moving and when you got into one, you were stuck there for a long time.  They just sat in place and slowly drifted to the NW and another one would form once one drifted away.  Unlike the afternoon, these storms had lots of wind and lightening associated with them.

The winds were generally between 25 and 35 kts (~30 to 40 MPH) and we had regular gusts to 45 kts (52 MPH).  The winds shifted all over the place depending upon which thunderhead was generating the most wind.  In the dark it was difficult to determine which direction we were facing or to tell if we were dragging.  Both boats turned on their running lights so that we could see one another and tell how the boats were facing.  I also created a waypoint where we were anchored and measured our distance to it via the GPS.  We didn't drag at all, but Unicorn did drag until they got into some good sand or snagged something. BJ and I were bantering back and forth via the SSB to provide some camaraderie while standing in the rain.  Other than dragging for a short distance, they came through without any problems.

The storms started at 9 PM and I finally dragged myself to bed at about 3 AM.  The storms weren't done yet, but we hadn't moved in all of that time.  At 3:30 the tide reversed and things got really bumpy with several knots of current against 30 kts of wind.  It was still blowing 25 kts when I got up at 6:30 am to check the weather and provide a report.  It's 10:30 now and it's calming down.

Today is my birthday and while I wasn't planning on ringing it in via this manner, I'm sure glad that it didn't happen tonight after celebrating with Sue, BJ and Diane.  Now we're just looking forward to a much calmer day and a great dinner of lasagna and chocolate cake!

-- Geoff & Sue

P.S. We're having our traditional Run for the Roses party on Saturday. Since it's also Cinco de Mayo, we're combining the two. If you're in the area, swing by!

Log ID: 956