After quick introductions, cooler-loading, and total-body sunscreen application, we were idling out of the narrow channel from Treasure Cay Marina to the open waters of the Abaco Sea.
Rita continued to strengthen as its eye passed through the narrow Straits of Florida between Key West and Cuba and into the warm, open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The main road into Sirajganj runs along a raised embankment but the narrow strips of grass on either side are now home to dozens of people escaping the waters below.