Last night a strong cold front passed through Pelican Bay, bringing us some of the strongest winds we have weathered at anchor in a long time.
The winds were a solid 25-30 knots with gusts to 35. One particular time that I was looking at the wind instrument, the wind was sustained for several minutes at around 32 knots.
To give some perspective, the National Weather Service considers winds at or above 33 knots to be 'gale force'.
The holding is, however, good here and we had decent protection behind Punta Blanco Island for the worst of the blow. The 45 lb. Delta anchor with 125' of 5/16" HT chain did its job well and we held securely. We did set an electronic anchor watch and were ready to get underway if we dragged.
The positive side of strong winds is that with our wind generator, we have had more electricity than we can use - a very rare occasion. We ran the water maker for 7 hours, even though the water clarity here is not ideal for making water and ran the inverter to charge all our battery-powered devices as much as possible. Even today we have had to turn off the solar power (the easiest to disable) for most of the day to keep the wind generator from going in and out of divert - a harmless but annoying behavior.
Today the winds have greatly subsided, and tomorrow we will get the dinghy back in the water and go ashore again.
Tom
Anchored Pelican Bay
Cayo Costa Island, FL
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