Grassy Bay, Cat Cay

There is some sort of low pressure system stalled over Lake Okeechobee that has been wreaking havoc with the weather as well as the models that forecast it.  We are supposed to expect all kinds of thunderstorms, but tomorrow is expected to not be as bad.  I'm hoping for this last crossing to be just as uneventful as all others (crossing fingers).

This morning, determined to get a head start on the crossing and a better angle on the gulfstream, we headed over to North Cat Cay.  We anchored in a little cove on the west side of the island called "Grassy Bay", obviously named for being so grassy.  For those that don't know, anchoring in seagrass is not great, but the winds are so light, and it offers so much protection that we decided to anchor here anyway.  The bay is only exposed to the northwest, and since there is no forecast announcing northwest winds or waves, we decided that this would be fine.

Sailing over from Bimini we could see thunderstorms to our west, it looked pretty bad.  The radio was going crazy with multiple severe weather warnings in Dade and Broward.  Looking at the doppler radar, I could infer that we would be seeing some of those later.  About an hour after having anchored, it started raining and blowing from the northwest (yes, the only direction from which we had no protection).  The winds picked up and Seas the Moment swong on her anchor to face the wind, we must have been 50 feet from shore!  I turned on the engine a little above idle to take some of the pressure from the anchor which may (or may not) be holding.  The wind probably didn't reach 20 kts, but it was kind of sketchy to be being blown onto a beach just off our stern.  Mike and Jennifer decided to reanchor further off the beach while all this wind and rain was going on... it looked kind of difficult, plus, I didn't seem like I was dragging, so I simply kept "motoring" until the winds let down.  I hope I don't have to deal with that again later tonight!

We are thinking about leaving shortly after midnight.  I'm somewhat nervous about storms, yet so eager to raise Miami's skyline out of the horizon!

Wish me luck!