IF IT HAPPENS IT HAPPENS OUT THERE

"IF IT HAPPENS IT'S GONNA HAPPEN OUT THERE!" our favorite speech of Captain Ron. By the way if you haven't seen Captain Ron yet I suggest you get a copy and watch it, its funnier then heck, no it's hilarious and you'll enjoy it even more so if you are a boater. We lost count how many times we've watched it so far, but it's over ten times. According to our experience it's also "IF IT HAPPENS IT'S GONNA HAPPEN AT NIGHT!" We were anchored just off the island of Curricai along with 3 other sailboats, enduring a 2 to 4 foot swell rolling through the anchorage, sometimes worse then others. Wind hasn't been too bad right around 15 knots and the sky turned cloudy and stayed cloudy three days, maybe a chance for rain we've been hoping for. Several occasions it tried to sprinkle as squall after squall passed but it never turned into any rain. If it happens it's gonna happen at night and sure enough the third night around 2.30 am all hell broke loose. Heavy rain was pounding on the deck and the wind was howling up a storm, it sounded almost like a freight train. We brought everything in that could get wet and Sid turned the radar on to assess how big the squall was. It was enormous a whole 16 miles across and our guess is with winds over 40 knots. Turned the wind indicator on but all that showed up on the screen was a quick flash then nothing then just zeros while the wind was still howling. It blew so hard it must have burned it our or blown away, no telling until the following morning. Turned out the anemometer froze. The weather was coming out of the south instead of the NE, so we staid up for a while keeping an eye on the situation. I eventually went back to sleep while Sid staid up keeping an eye on things.
Late afternoon before the squall one yachty knocking on the boat brought a message from the Guardia for each boat to call them on VHF 16 to tell them who we were and that their motor was broken down so they could not come out. We all did as they asked and the Guardia offered then to call them on channel 16 in emergency. Good one!!! How are they coming to help us with a broken outboard.
One squall after another was passing by but none as furious as the one in the middle of the night. In the morning we waited for two squalls to pass, pulled anchor and headed to Isla Larga the biggest island of Sotavento and anchored two bays passed the Guardia in a perfect little protected and calm spot in the cut between Isla Larga and a small mangrove island. Isla Larga is about 2 miles long and nothing but mangroves, yeah, more fishing. Best yet, Sid excitedly called me outside and pointed at a flock of about 20 flamingos flying by, wow how kewl is that!