Goodnight, Irene

I think we've made it.  It's not over yet and the forecast calls for high winds until midnight.  But here at Latitudes, we see a gradual change in the wind direction and the speed of the gusts.  Things seem to be calming down.  Now, we still have 25+ knot winds, but that's ok!  We will still maintain watches until we are satisfied that everything is ok for the night. The highest gusts we've seen have been at 37 kts, about 43 mph, and there were very few of those.

Smoke did fine, really. She definitely noticed the more frequent boat movement and the howling gusts of wind.  I expect that she also picked up on a little tension from us.  She is a bit more needy - but we like that sometimes...she becomes a lap cat, and helps us keep watch.

So, unless something changes, we'll call it a night for the blog.  Hopefully we'll be able to call it at night here, too, before too late!   Thanks for all of the concerned e-mails - we love you all!