Just catching up here:

Back in Chacala, sitting in our hammocks at sunset, we saw our first green flash of the trip. It was very bright green and distinct. Hopefully the first of many more now that we’re firmly in tropical latitudes.

In Jaltemba, we were anchored right off the beach in just 12 feet of water for our last night there when we had the dubious experience of a thunderstorm about midnight.

Everything looked calm and nice when we went to sleep, but a strong gust through the cabin around 2300 announced that all that had changed. I was just starting to wonder what had woke me up when I saw the first flash of lightning. I got up fast and looked out. Ah oh! Our previously safe anchorage had turned into a lee shore and wind and waves were building. We got into our life jackets and prepared for the worst, lashing down what we could and checking to make sure no lines were in the water to foul in the prop should we have to quickly depart. I also set a waypoint on the radar (the GPS is way off here) that would get us out safely past a small island that’s about a mile away, in case visibility dropped from rain squalls. Now it started raining pretty hard and we could see lightning bolts hitting the water just to the Northwest. But we sat tight and fortunately this storm passes mostly north of us, heading Eastward in over the land. I stayed up until about 0300 just to make sure it was over and past, then went back to bed.

A tropical storm. Another reminder that we are in the tropics. This one was a good reminder that we should (and have) put together a checklist for when a storm hits at anchor to make sure that when in a sleepy haze, we don’t forget something important.