- After watching a DVD I went to bed for about an hour. Buffy came in for cuddles which was nice. When the alarm went off at 11pm I got up to look at the weather. Tropical Storm Erika is almost directly south of us with the center being 143 miles away with maximum wind of 40MPH. That workboat that was on the wreck's mooring for Ana & Bill came back this afternoon. There has been much in the way of loud voices and cussing for the past couple of hours... Don't know what the problem is but at least there's no gunshots... Buffy & Willow have decided to stay inside tonight as it's a bit breezy. Here's the 11pm map from StormPulse.com
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6:15 PM UPDATE
- We've been getting ready for the storm. Charged up 48 volt battery bank for electric motor, cleaned prop, put out 2nd anchor, returned DVDs, taken care of sails, etc. The 5pm forecast has moved Erika more to the south of us. Looks like it has gone over Guadeloupe. The current storm track predicts that at 2:00am that the center of the storm with be 90 miles directly to the south of us with maximum winds of 40MPH and we are outside of that cone. Hurray. We'll keep a lookout.
11:30 AM UPDATE
- We went and got water & gasoline and then went to the French supermarket and bought some wine, pate, brie, and a nice baguette. When we got back to the boat it was time for the 11am forecast. Tropical Storm Erika is really keeping them guessing. They now show that it will pass to the south of us going over Antigua and then St. Thomas, but with a lower wind strength of 40-45MPH. Looking forward to the 2pm forecast. It's a busy day... Oh, the 11:30 bridge open and boats are coming in. Hope they anchor properly.
The 8am forecast (September 2, 2009) for Tropical Storm Erika shows that the center of the storm will be 26 miles away from St. Martin on Thursday at 2pm.
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But according to the 5am NOAA Tropical Discussion, they seem to be quite uncertain about a few things so hopefully things might look better later on... We are getting prepared.
