Preparing and avoiding Ernesto

31st July
5pm: Sat at the Anchorage Hotel, Dominica checking the weather. Front coming our way that looks pretty ugly and NOAA has classified it as a tropical storm for now with 30% chance of it turning into a cyclone. Both agreed to leave the next morning and head South out of its path. Being our first season in the Caribbean, we would like it to be hurricane free!

1st August
7am: Left Dominica for Admiralty Bay, Bequia, requiring an overnight passage of 140 miles. 
10am: 3 yachts go zooming past us heading North, we are the only boat heading South - slightly disconcerting!
4pm: Lost 2 lures already, one from a big strike that took the whole trace and lure with it and another to the wind gen…
5pm: Text Mum to ask her to check the hurricane website for update on the tropical storm. Its a storm with 70% chance of becoming a cyclone now and has been named Ernesto. We read up on the rest of the islands potential for decent hurricane holes if the worst were to happen and both agreed we would stick to our plan of going to Bequia.
8pm: Very light winds in the lee of Martinique so engine has gone on to save our sanity and increase the speed from 1.6kts to 6kts. How we love our refurbished gearbox!

2nd August
8am: See 5 yachts heading North, why is everyone heading North, what do they know that we don't know?? Slightly more concerned...
12pm: Made it to Admiralty Bay, Bequia and immediately went online to check the status of Ernesto. The eye is heading for St Vincent which is only 30 miles away so should miss us but we are going to prepare for the worst anyway.
1pm: Dylan jumps in and I let out the rode for a second anchor which Dylan beds. We then lash the bimini down, put the mainsail cover on, clear any loose lines from the deck and cockpit, take the pegs and washing line down and take off the monitor wind vane rudder.
3pm: Ernesto is downgraded to a depression so we stop our preparation there and don't go as far as taking the sails down that we had intended to do.
8pm: Go to bed and keep the VHF on for any updates from the coastguard.

3rd August
2am: Wake up to hear the coastguard saying the depression has been upgraded to a tropical storm and will hit the Windward Islands around 8am.
7am: Wake up and prepare for the incoming storm.
8am: Nothing happens….
9am: Nothing happens and there is so little wind, Orion is dancing around the 2 anchors doing 360s. Luckily the charter cats that anchored really near us on both sides have left (nutters).
11am: Heavy rain with a couple of gusts that only reach 31 knots.
3pm: Dylan jumps in to check our 2 anchors in case strong winds follow the depression. He gets chatting to a French couple who ask him to help re-anchor their boat. Good job he did as the anchor hadn't been set and if strong winds came though they would have gone walkies.

After all that preparation, the wind didn't come through very strong other than the usual trade winds (20-25 knots). Being our first encounter with a tropical storm we were glad of the practice, learnt a lot and hope that we never have to do it for real!


Goodbye Ernesto and hello Florence. Maybe this one will be for real? For anyone wanting to keep a track of the potential hurricanes, we use this website - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov