The Cold Front Passage

Marsh Harbor
N 26 32.845 W 077 03.485

For three days now, we have been hearing about a "very nasty" cold front that will pass over us at 1400 on Saturday. First it caused tornadoes in Tennessee, then again in Northern Florida. The forecaster said that the front passage may be accompanied by squalls with gale force wind. All that forewarning and waiting leads to anxiety. Well, today we were all prepared. Anchors set and things on deck secured. By 1300 we could hear thunder, by 1330 we could see the lighting, black sky and scud,
and the front passed over us at 1350 (pretty good 3 day forecast come to think of it)

I sat anchor watch up behind the dodger to watch what would happen. Our next door neighbor, a 40 foot ketch from Annapolis, had anchored too close to us, and sure enough, as the wind clocked from South to Northwest, he came within 10 feet of us. No collision though so it wasn't a big deal. Also, the gale-force squalls never hit us on this spot, so the event was less dramatic than feared.

Then looking around, I noticed that all 200 boats anchored in the harbor had swung around on their anchors to point NW except three of them that were still pointing South. Evidently, those three were aground. Low tide is at 1444 today, so they'll have to wait for the tide to come in to float again.

Funniest, was a trawler anchored near us. Two days ago, our friends Kim and Leon on Gypsy complained that that trawler had anchored right on their nose up at Manjack Cay, despite a square mile or so of other places he might have chosen to anchor. That made them nervous because if the trawler dragged, they would be the victims. Now, the same trawler came in to Marsh Harbor and anchored on their nose once again. However Leon said, "We are in the NW corner of the anchorage. When the wind clocks
around to NW, all those boats in front of me now, will be behind me. Then I'll feel secure." Guess what, after the wind did clock around, Gypsy was on the nose of the trawler. The trawler then took up his anchor, motored around Gypsy and re-anchored right on Gypsy's nose once again. I won't blog the name of the trawler, but I suggest that a good name would be Nemesis.