Weather

The weather in the Bahamas this winter has, in general, been better than other years. It had been much better than last year when we had cold front after cold front, causing the wind to clock around a few times a week. We had to spend long stretches of time in protected anchorages and were unable to go to other places we wanted to visit. This year we have had fewer cold fronts—until this week. We have been in Rock Sound for a week and had planned to sail to Spanish Wells on the northern end of Eleuthera. However, the this morning’s forecast showed bad weather—strong winds and potential storms—for early next week. We decided to stay in Rock Sound for another few days until that passes. 

Forecast from the Windy app. Greens and blues indicate lighter winds, Yellow, orange, red and purple indicate stronger winds. The forecast for the place we had planned to go was 32 mph sustained wind with higher wind in the gusts and even higher if there was a squall. 

During our walk today we took a shortcut and passed a patch of cotton growing. It reminded me that at one time there were cotton plantations on some islands in the Bahamas, including Eleuthera. After the revolutionary war British loyalists came to the Bahamas, some with their slaves, and established plantations. Various factors made it difficult for them to succeed and by the early 1800’s the plantations had died out. Some cotton still remains. 

Cotton plants.