Tropical Storm Tomas

Here's what Prickley Bay looked like just before sunset today.  More clouds were developing but the sun broke through and lit up the shoreline and the boats at anchor.

 The tropical wave to the east of Grenada has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Tomas and could reach hurricane strength.  We are expecting tropical storm strength winds in Grenada currently predicted to reach 55 knots.

 We decided to stay in Prickley Bay.  Our anchor is well set, we let out extra chain and we've tied down anything that might move on the deck.  Nothing to do now but wait and watch the weather reports.  Will Tomas gather strength quickly and hit us hard?  Will Tomas veer farther north and skirt the north edge of Grenada?  We'll just have to wait it out.  Tropical storm warnings have been issued from Trinidad to Dominica.

A comment was left on our last blog posting regarding my comment that we were getting this weather with only 2 days left in hurricane season.  The comment pointed out that hurricane season technically goes through November.  That's true.  It also technically starts in June but here in the southern Caribbean cruisers consider hurricane season to be July through October.  Most insurance companies will only require their policy holders to be south of 12 degrees north latitude until November 1st.  Many cruisers already started heading north in the past week or so.  I hope they have all found a safe harbor to tuck themselves in to.

Tropical Storm Tomas

Projected path of Tomas

Storm Watch in Grenada

With only 2 days left in hurricane season we are on a storm watch in Grenada.  A very large tropical wave to the east of us is showing a 80% chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next 48 hours.  The tropical wave is the large, red circle at the bottom of the following image.

 There is a large amount of rain showing in the satelite image. 

Wind is forcast to be 25-30 knots on Saturday.

 Of the 4 projections, one has the storm passing directly over Grenada.  The others show it passing to the north.

This is not the biggest storm we've ever been through but it certainly has the potential to grow and drop a lot of rain as it passes.  We're keeping a close eye on this one.  This morning we are off to the supermarket to stock up for the weekend as we won't be going anywhere for a few days!