Tuesday - Preparation for the storm

The wind had died down overnight and it was a calm sunny morning.  One look at the weather and a different story was on the horizon.

 
Our reservation was in danger of being lost because of the impending hurricane.  I got Beth up and within 1/2 hour we were motoring to the Isla Mujeres Yacht Club & Resort.  We apparently took one of the last available slots as the people that followed us in didn't have a spot.  We are positioned between two large boats on a floating dock.  We spent most of the morning securing the boat, adding dock lines, taking the main sail off the boat, stowing the dinghy and doing our best to make sure the boat would stay put. The entire area was busier than I had ever seen it with boats coming here from Puerto Morelos and Cancun to hide in the hurricane hole.  The weather today was breezy with off and on rain but not bad.  Tomorrow will be worse.

She is tied with 2 lines off each corner, 1 off each side and two off the main forward anchor cleat. All the covers are off so they can't blow away and everything is closed and double checked.  Now we just wait and hope for the best.  Beth and I got settled into our room which is very nice, king size bed, big bath tub, nice flat screen tv with cable.  The resort has backup power so hopefully we will have power through the storm.  We made a trip to the store to get essentials for the room and moved a lot off the boat so we would have supplies.  The 5pm weather report was a bit worse, it looks like they are predicting a Category 3 hurricane by the time it gets here.

The wind and rain will start tomorrow and we will make several trips to the boat to recheck everything and those around us.  One of the biggest dangers is someone else breaking loose and hitting your boat.  We are protected by 3 sides by dock and boats that can't hit us.  Our stern is slightly exposed but not too bad.  We enjoyed being in the resort and ordered our Pizza Rock 2 for 1 Tuesday pizza for dinner.

The late forecast hasn't changed much and most of the computer models are starting to agree.  I don't like the idea of it hitting in the evening.  Now its just a wait and see.  This storm is huge !