Marigot Bay - St Marteen (French side)
February 24, 2014
finding the perfect hurricane hole...
Although it is only February, we have started looking for our hurricane hole for the summer. Hurricane season begins June 1st and lasts through October. June and July have less likelihood of hurricanes - so we feel as long we watch the weather closely and have defined "hurricane holes" in mind, we could cheat our way through June... That is, if we haven't settled into the perfect hurricane hole by then.
Hurricane holes are spots that offer natural protection from hurricanes. One example is Marigot bay on St Lucia. This particular harbor is surrounded by hills on 3 sides and is open only to the west (typically hurricanes blow from the east). The bay is also surrounded by mangroves where boats can tie extra lines to their exposed roots. It is said that during the last hurricane that came through St Lucia, the peak winds in Marigot bay were 30 knots (33 miles per hour) with virtually no waves. Many islands have such safe harbors.
Other islands are outside the defined typical hurricane path (Aruba or Grenada for example) and could be sailed to within 24 hours if a hurricane is predicted. (The joy of a fast boat...) We have friends on an Outremer 55 that have stayed in St Martin in previous years knowing that they could sail to Grenada in 30-36 hours-thus using a defensive strategy of just "getting out of the way" and having the beautiful islands to themselves during the down season.
Shawn and I have been discussing our season's hurricane hole. Priorities include... in no particular order; 1-Safe from the hurricanes!(and other weather... ie lightening - we do have a pretty significant lightening rod) 2-Spanish speaking (we both want to enroll in an intensive Spanish class) 3-Interesting culture to explore, which may put us near a larger city? 4-close to a major airport. We plan on flying up to Seattle for the month of September and down to Peru to explore Machu Piccu for a month as well. 5-good security for the boat while we are gone. 6-good exploring by boat when there is no threat of hurricanes.
Enter our current choice for hurricane hole... Rio Dulce Guatamala! Plenty or exploring both by boat and on land. Good safe marinas.
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