The very last thing we expected we’d have to do once we arrived back in Florida was wait five nights at anchor in Lake Worth for weather to pass. Yet here we sit on night number five. On top of that, today has been the single worst day of weather we’ve had since we left St. Augustine on February 5th.

It rained all night, with only a few breaks of light drizzle. As morning approached, the rain was accompanied by thunder, lightning and squally winds that got up near 30 knots as the storm cells approached. Just after dawn, we were greeted with the screaming sound of our anchor alarm going off. We had dragged about forty feet when the wind and current happened to change direction at the same time and applied a strong pull on the anchor in the exact opposite direction from which it was originally set.  Although the anchor did reset itself, we ended up a little too close to one of the other boats in the crowded anchorage, so we started the engine and decided to re-anchor. This time we set the anchor towards the new direction of the wind (SSE) since this was where the strongest gusts came from during the squalls and it was forecast to remain in that direction for the next several days. This way, when the current was combining with the force of the wind, the greatest pull on the anchor would be in the direction of how it was now set. When the current switched to the other direction, it would just relieve some of the wind pressure on the anchor chain.

For most of the rest of the day it was a constant procession of squalls right over the top of us. Tommy spent an inordinate amount of time with his phone looking at the weather radar and anchor distance/bearing (featured picture). For the brief intervals between storm cells, we tried to get some rest but were soon awakened by thunder. It’s finally calm for the moment as this is being written, but we are both a little worn out.

Since this weather is forecast to persist into next weekend (although not quite so bad as today), we are going to try and get into a nearby marina tomorrow. Normally we much prefer being at anchor instead of in a marina, but with the specter of 5 or 6 more days of rain and squalls, and the difficulty our dinghy has getting us comfortably back and forth to shore in these conditions, we want to be able to stretch our legs. We briefly thought about just proceeding up the ICW in the wind and rain, so we can make some progress toward our home base in St. Augustine. While doable in poor weather, it would be much less enjoyable, entail some element of risk, and for the moment at least, we aren’t pressed.

The bright spot of today was our dinner of the chicken soup Paula made yesterday along with some freshly-made biscuits.