Waiting out the weather

Waiting out the weather

Thursday 27th - Saturday 29th March 2025

With access to some of the best weather forecasts available, such as Predict Wind and Chris Parker, we had ample warning of the arrival of strong winds. We stayed in the Hog Cay anchorage until Thursday morning and then motored northwards to Raccoon Island. Whilst it was only about 6 miles ‘as-the crow-flies’, the actual journey was more like 10 miles as we needed to take westerly curving route to avoid shoals. The winds had already started to pick up and it was a salty affair, driving into short wind-driven chop. We arrived shortly before noon and anchored securely on the north end of House Bay. There were already almost a dozen boats in the anchorage.

Over the next 48 hours the winds steadily increased and peaked last night with sustained winds of 25 knots, gusting to 32 knots. We are anchored in ~ 15 feet of water, over a sandy bottom, with 120 feet of chain out. We haven’t moved from our original position and over time, started to feel quite secure. We took the dinghy to shore on Thursday afternoon for a brief walk along the beach and the went over to Arabella in the evening and enjoyed spending time with our friends Paul and Jo and Benge and Debbie (from Makarios). 

On Friday afternoon, with some trepidation, as it was by now blowing strongly, we again went to shore and hiked over to the eastern side of the island. The walk, along a well marked path through the scrub, was over heavily weathered and very sharp limestone. The sight of the ocean on the eastern side of the island was breathtaking. There was so much spray in the air it was difficult to keep my camera lens clear. We didn’t stay too long as it was obvious that there were squalls approaching and we did get soaked on the way back to the dinghy. 

It is pretty comfortable on board, some chop because there is a decent fetch to shore, but very little roll in the anchorage. The cell phone reception that we eventually were able to use at Ragged Island is no longer accessible. However, the couple aboard Off Trail, the boat adjacent to ours, kindly offered us access to their StarLink system, so we do have some internet connectivity. In fact we were even able to watch a movie! 

This morning, Saturday, the winds are finally starting to settle down. If the forecast holds up, we expect to move up the Ragged island chain on Sunday and Monday and pass through the Comer channel on Tuesday, with significantly moderated winds and high tide.

Mike

22 21.734 N, 75 49.044 W 

The east (windward) side of Racoon Cay

Scary looking seas

This is what sustained 25 knot winds generate in terms of waves and surf

Gloria, Erin, Mike and Benge

Bird Dog - 'King'

The west side, protected by Racoon Cay, has flat water close to shore and only wind chop out where we are anchored

Another beautiful beach on Racoon Island - a very shallow approach with many rays sunning themselves close to shore

The obligatory beach landing

We took a short walk to an inland 'blue hole' (salt water) and Benge and I took a swim. 'King' wanted to go in but wouldn't have been able to climb out

The weathered limestone is extremely sharp

This video was shot whilst motoring up from Hog Cay to Racoon Cay just as the strong winds were starting. There was quite a lot of spray. (Please excuse the wind noise - maybe turn the volume off)