Stormy Weather in Elizabeth Harbour, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

The sunrise on Thursday March 27, 2025 was blocked by clouds, but it still was pretty with the crescent moon

When we woke up, we saw that the wind had picked up to 12 – 15 knots, but it didn’t appear to have rained. The harbor was choppy, and the motion was uncomfortable. The waves seemed to be coming from two directions: We were pitching (the waves on our nose), but we were also being pushed to the side a bit.

When we’d done the photo shoot on Sunday, we’d been in a hurry to leave for shore after we’d re-anchored, so we hadn’t put out the flopper stoppers. Since then, the motion hasn’t been that bad, so we hadn’t bothered to put them out. But this morning, putting out the flopper stoppers was the first thing we did. The flopper stoppers did help to dampen the motion quite a bit, but it still wasn’t pleasant onboard.

The wind screamed all day. We never got the dinghy down. One of the cruisers had a LEGO building playdate for kids on their boat. Eric and Keith went, and they managed to catch a ride with some of the other attendees. Christi never left Kosmos. This was taken shortly after the sunset.

On Friday, weather conditions worsened in the wee hours of the morning. The wind was consistently at 20+ knots. We had one gust at 27 knots and one at 28 knots! There was heavy rain, but we lucked out and had a break in the rain during sunrise.

Continue reading

Lunch at The Rusty Anchor and a Turtle on Great Exuma Island, Bahamas

When we woke up on Tuesday, March 25, we saw that the storm had not hit yet. It was an unusual dawn, with the colors darker than normal.

Eric checked the forecast; the storm was still on its way, and now it was supposed to be even bigger than what had been predicted yesterday. The barge was still there, too. On the radio net, someone said the barge was waiting for a tow boat to come rescue them.

It was the hottest and most humid day that we’ve had in the Bahamas. It was so hot that we broke down and turned on the AC – it was the first time that we’d run it since arriving in the Bahamas. 

Eric was still hesitant to turn the Zeus back on. He decided to only turn the power on, and didn’t run it. The first thing it did was demand a software update in order to operate.

Continue reading

Rafting Down The Rio Grande in Portland, Jamaica

Thursday, March 6 — Our friends on the Kadey Krogan had recommended that we do a river rafting tour down the Rio Grande, and had recommended a guide. We’d called him a few days ago and had made arrangements for him to pick us up today at 0900. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good communicator. He said the price was $95 for a two-person raft. We were unclear on whether we were renting one raft or two rafts, and if only one raft, if there was a charge for a third person. We were also unclear on whether the cost included transportation to the river. 

At 0900, we were greeted at the marina gate by two men; Michael was our driver and Louis our rafting guide. We left town via the same road that follows East Harbor that we’d taken yesterday, but instead of following the shoreline, he turned inland and took us up the mountain. The road was narrow and full of potholes, but it was scenic. Here is a view of the blue mountains.

As expected, the farther away from town we got, the less dense the homes along the road. While there were some dilapidated homes, the majority appeared to be well built and well cared for.  There were quite a few large homes, as well.

Continue reading