Rain, lightning, and thunder! Oh my!

Today was quite a contrast from yesterday! It started out well enough, some clouds, a pleasant breeze, and calm waters.

We had coffee and breakfast, then loaded the pups into the dinghy for a ride to the beach. They had a great time waking with us, testing for new smells, and then chasing the ball (and each other).

As they came back with the ball one last time, we saw rain on the other side of the island, heading this way. Time to go back to the boat!

We didn't waste any time, heading out quickly, putting on the puppy PFDs while under way, burning more battery power than we normally would. Looking back, we could see that the beach was obscured now, and the water had a haze over it. We got back just ahead of the rain!

Lynda got the pups mostly decontaminated, washing off the sand with the deck rinse hose while I raised the dinghy out of the water with the davit system.

Then the lightning started. Mostly fairly far away, but the pups weren't happy. Especially poor Moss. I had to reward him with Cheez-its, encouraging him to lie down near me rather than pacing and trying to find somewhere else to be. It's a work in progress, but I'm super proud of him.

It continued on and off like this all day. We had planned to prepare for our passage tomorrow to Great Inagua, but a lot of what we needed to do was up on deck, and rain with lightning isn't a good combination. We managed to sneak in just enough prep work between storms to be ready for tomorrow.

Dinner time came, and Lynda made an amazing new dish in the Instapot with chicken, rice, and cream of mushroom soup. Just before it was ready, a big thunder storm rolled right over us.

We suddenly swung 90 degrees on anchor as the wind shifted, and the wind turned very cold. This is a huge danger sign.

Electronics in the faraday bags, engines on and warming up. It could get very windy, with lots of lightning.

It was intense for about 30 minutes. The winds never really built up, but the rain got heavy and the lightning was unrelenting.

Thankfully, it passed without anyone in the anchorage getting hit!

Hopefully, things will calm down tonight and we will have a nice sunny day for our journey to Great Inagua.