Bill and I left Georgetown with Sunday’s Child the morning of January 29^th.  The wind was favorable but the seas were fairly rolly.  I picked up Bill a few days prior at the airport in Georgetown and Arcturus was finally (and unfortunately!) heading back north.  This was Bill’s first sail on board and luckily he took some Dramamine that morning just in case it got rough.

Ted from Sunday’s Child had helped me pick out a few things at the tackle shop and rig up our fishing gear.  The fishing on the sound side of the Exumas is better than the shallower bank side, so we were excited to try and catch dinner.  I had a monster fishing lure that Greg gave me at Norman’s Cay that I had on the fishing pole and an orange squid lure on the Cuban yo-yo.

We threw out the lines and waited.  The monster lure had a large spoon on the end and our fishing rod could barely handle it.  It was bent over double right away when we threw it in the water.  We kept sailing for a while and watching the lines.  After about 45 minutes, we looked back and noticed something dragging behind the fishing rod line.  We figured we must have caught a plastic bag or some seaweed and started the slow process of reeling it in.  The reel for fishing rod could not handle the lure so one of us would pull in the slack on the line while the other would reel.  About half way in we realized it was a fish on the line and not trash!  We finally got the fish all the way in and it turned out to be a large barracuda!  Apparently barracuda will strike just about any lure but you cannot eat them.  They accumulate a toxin called ciguatera which is much like mercury poison in fish.  Bill wrestled the fish into the boat and removed the hooks before throwing it back in.  It didn’t put up much of a fight because I think we accidently drug it for a couple of miles!  We threw the line back in and ended up catching another small barracuda right after that but nothing worth eating.

We continued to sail and keep in contact with Sunday’s Child.  They were not having any luck fishing either.  We sailed for the rest of the day and entered into Galliot Cut in the late afternoon.  Sunday’s Child is faster than us so Ted was already checking his anchor when we pulled in.  As we passed by he popped his head out of the water and held up two huge conchs!  They had not been anchored for more five minutes and Ted already found dinner!  Incredible!  We dropped our anchor and I hopped in the water to check it.  I quickly discovered Ted’s secret.  Conchs covered the bottom of the entire anchorage!  They were everywhere!  I swam over to his boat and we formed a strategy.  We searched for the largest we could find and Ted served as the filter to determine which ones made the cut.  We ended up with ten nice sized conchs and went to the beach to clean them.

Bill ended up being a natural at extracting the conchs from their shells (which is convenient because I am terrible at it!).  He extracted most of the conch while Ted and I cleaned them.  The sun was beginning to set as we finished up and the bugs started coming out on the beach.  That motivated us to quickly finish up and we went back to the boat to “crack” the conch (tenderize it with a hammer).  We prepared a delicious dinner of conch burgers and went to bed happy.

We woke up the next day and decided to go out and search for something besides conch for dinner.  There was a nice reef on the northern side of Galliot Cay so we went over there to try our luck with the fishing poles.  We trolled back and forth in Ted’s dinghy for awhile but did not have any success.  We went over and anchored near the drop off and hopped in the water with our spears.  There were a few fish but most were too deep for us to go after.  All of a sudden the wind picked up and it started pouring down rain.  Ted and I both popped our heads out of the water to check it out.  I looked over at him and he just shrugged with a “We’re not going to get any wetter” kind of look.  We kept searching but could not find any fish.  As I am looking around I notice that the dinghy is not where we left it!  It had started a slow drift away from us as the wind and waves kept pushing it backwards!  I signaled to Ted and we started chasing after the dinghy.  The rain was really coming down and I was short of breath by the time we made it back to the runaway dinghy.  We were both a little cold so we decided to head back to home base to warm up.

Too much conch and no fish, so after the rain died down a little bit we went off to a nearby island to search for lobster.  We had some success there in the past so Ted figured it was as good a place to start as any.  Bill came out with us this time so we had three sets of eyes on the lookout.  I purchased my own spear inGeorgetownand was excited to try it out for the first time.  We looked for a while but had little success.  We found a few lobster but they were too small to take.  We left that area and went around to the southern side of Galliot Cay towards the inlet.  We hopped in a few times and worked our way clockwise around the island back towards the boats.  We speared a few lion fish near the inlet and decided to put some distance between us and the blood in case any sharks were around.  After about an hour of searching Ted swims over with a medium size lobster.  Nice work!  It wasn’t enough to feed four people for dinner so we continued to search.

I had not shot a lobster yet so Ted told me if he saw one he would signal for me to take the first shot.  We were all spread out and Ted was leading the way.  I was focusing on the bottom edge of the reef when I suddenly swam up on Ted.  There were tons of bubbles coming from his snorkel and he was pointing wildly at something behind me.  SHARK!  I was ready to flee!  I looked all around and couldn’t see anything.  We popped our heads up and I asked him what was wrong!  He told me to follow his spear and we dove down.  I searched where he was pointing and saw what he had found.  I turned towards him and bubbles started streaming from my snorkel this time as I screamed “That’s the biggest lobster in the world!”  He was not on the floor like most lobsters but was in a cave in the side of the rock.  It was completely exposed broadside in the cave.  It was a monster!  Ted told me to take the first shot so I took a deep breath and dove down.  The cave was deep so I did not want to miss and scare it into the back of the cave.  The ideal spot to hit a lobster is through the head because they have a powerful tail that can shake a spear loose if you hit it there.  I approached slowly from its backside and aimed for its head (quite a large target actually!).  I shot and hit my mark!  Ted came up immediately behind me and shot it through the tail.  Great shot!  Ted grabbed both spears and wrestled it out of the cave.  We both surfaced and started swimming back to the dinghy.  We quickly declared that this was the biggest lobster any of us had ever seen!  We called it a day and made our way back to Sunday’s Child.

Once we arrived at the boat we presented our find to Maggie and Chessie (their dog).  Ted removed and cleaned the tails.  This lobster was so large that we decided to try and use some of the meat from the legs and antenna as well.  Maggie boiled the legs and antenna and we spent the rest of the afternoon picking the meat.  The leg meat was much richer than the tail and tasted more like Maine lobster than Spiny lobster.  Maggie made a lobster curry from the leg meat that was delicious!  Ted grilled the tails and we had another amazing dinner!

The next day was our last at Galliot Cay so we set out to see if we could find any fish.  Bill’s skin was still in US winter mode so he took the day off from snorkeling in the sun.  The rest of us piled in the dinghy and set off to the reef near the north side of the island.  It was a warm sunny day and the reef looked beautiful!  The water near shore was about 10 feet deep and quickly dropped off a ledge to about 30 or 40 feet deep.

As we were swimming over the deeper part we noticed a large nurse shark hanging out on the bottom and a group of six Manta rays were circling around as we swam over top.  Wonderful!  As we were getting ready to leave a nice size amberjack swam right over to Ted and just stopped!  A fish at last!  He cocked back his spear and was ready to shoot.  Ted hovered there for a minute and then swam away.  When we surfaced, I asked what was wrong.  He made a wise decision and decided not to potentially attract any sharks since we were so far away from our dinghy.  Oh well, no fish from Galliot Cay!

The next day we set off to Farmer’s Cay to attend the Five F’s (Farmer’s Festival First Friday in February).  There was promise of live music, a Bahamian C Class race and lots of good food and drinks.  We planned on meeting up with several friends there and were looking forward to a fun time!  That story to follow soon!

Here is the final slideshow from my winter Bahamas trip.  These are photos from January 7 (Nassau) – March 22 (Ocracoke) with the majority of photos from the Exumas.  It was tough to narrow them down but there are 132 to tell the story.  Hope you enjoy! Post a comment and let me know which ones you like the best!

Click here –> www.sailawaywebdesign.com/bahamasandback.html

While working on the last Bahamas blog post, I spent quite a bit of time in one of the restaurants at Atlantis.  I ended up making friends with several of the waitresses there and had a fun time talking with them throughout the night.  After finishing up the blog post I went into the Atlantis casinos and walked around for a bit.  I ended up at the Atlas Sports Bar and sat down for a drink.  After a while I started talking to this other solo guy beside me and we hung out for the rest of the night.  He was between jobs and was taking an extended vacation in different areas of the Caribbean before heading back.  We walked around the casinos for awhile, went down to the aquarium area and I finally decided to call it a night.

I decided to take a taxi back instead of walking through Nassau at night.  The taxi ride was short but ran me about $20.  I woke up the next morning to try and finish up everything I needed to do in Nassau.  I went to the grocery store and stocked up on a few things that I needed.  I was blown away by some of the prices.  A jar of jelly was about $7 and all the snack foods were very expensive.  Some of the items were similar to the US prices so I grabbed a few cans of Progresso soup and some more Pasta Sides.  I also bought a few cases of Cokes to use as a mixer.

I made my way across the parking lot to the liquor store and bought four more bottles of Ole Nassau rum.  It was a decent hike back to the marina so I definitely got my arm workout for the day carrying the provisions.  The rest of the night was uneventful and I called it an early night to prepare for the morning departure to Allen’s Cay.

I decided to get up around 5:45 am to give myself plenty of time to make the trip to Allen’s Cay.  I successfully used the stern spring line like Jimmy taught me to leave the dock and was underway with no problems at 6:00 am.  It was very calm and I passed Porgee Rocks and set my GPS for the Allen’s Cay waypoint.

The ESE wind was favorable and blowing around 10 knots.  I put out the headsail and continued to motor.  This was one of my first passages on my own and I was a little reluctant to put up the mainsail for this trip.  Around 11 am I could start to see islands in the distance.  Land ho, the Exumas at last!

I made my way around the corner in between Allen’s Cay and Leaf Cay.  There were tons of boats anchored in the channel!  I couldn’t believe it!  I was definitely spoiled by the Berry Islands where Mark and I had the place to ourselves most of the time.  I made my way up to the less popular northern anchoring spot and set the hook around 1:30 pm.  I dove down to the anchor and saw that it was set very well.  Satisfied that Arcturus wasn’t going anywhere without me, I hopped in the dinghy with the camera to check out Leaf Cay and the iguanas.

I decided to row around to get a little exercise instead of relying on the outboard.  As I pulled up to the beach, several large iguanas started coming out of the bushes.  Apparently cruisers frequently feed them so I think they were a little disappointed that I only had a camera.  I snapped a few photos but quickly discovered that they were not the most exciting creatures to photograph.  I hopped back in the dinghy and rowed about another half mile to SW Allen’s Cay.  There were quite a few large iguanas on this island as well but I decided not to explore too far inland because I think I kept startling some resting iguanas.

I hopped in the dinghy to row back and only made it about half a mile because the current was flowing strongly against me.  I reluctantly cranked up the outboard and was back to the boat in no time.  I really enjoyed the row around the harbor.  I started putting together my cruising workout plan of rowing around daily and pulling up the anchor chain.  I spent the remainder of the evening reading Moby Dick on the boat.

I decided to move on the next day around 9 am.  There were too many boats in this small anchorage and I was somewhat anxious to contact Mom and Dad and let them know the solo crossing went well.  The current was flowing against the wind and I had a fairly tough time getting the anchor up.  I made a mental note that gloves would probably be a good idea and I could maybe use the motor to help a bit too.

The current was flowing fast but I made it out of the channel with no problems.  There was a decent swell and following sea that tossed the boat around a little bit. I threw up the headsail and turned off the motor.  I happened to glance back at the dinghy to check how it was riding the swell and noticed that one of the oars was missing.  No way!  I was so angry!  I quickly furled in the headsail, cranked up the engine and did a quick 180 to try and see if I could find it.  After a few futile minutes of searching I gave up.  I couldn’t believe it, I had just had an amazing row the day before and made my mind up not to use the outboard if I could help it.  Now I would have to rely exclusively on that and not even have a back up option if it failed.

I fumed for awhile but finally put my sails back up and calmed down a bit.  I figured worse things definitely could have happened and I am still in a beautiful area cruising around.  A sailboat ended up passing me while I was looking for the oar and it looked like they were heading for Highbourne Cay as well.  It turned out to be the Baba 35 that I had seen at Lizard Cay in the Berrys.

I dropped my anchor near them around 10:50 am and hopped in the water to make sure it was set well.  Shortly after I got settled the couple from the Baba came over to introduce themselves.  We talked for a bit and they invited me over for a drink later on.  I gladly accepted and told them I would stop by in a little bit.  I gathered a few things together to head into Highbourne Marina to email Mom and Dad.

It was a decent ride to the marina and I wasn’t sure exactly where to park when I arrived in the harbor.  They didn’t seem to have a proper dinghy dock so I made my way to one of the low docks and tied up.  I went into the office and inquired about using their internet.  The woman at the counter was very short with me and it was obvious that I was not the clientele that they were trying to serve.  I offered to pay whatever I needed to use the internet but she refused unless I wanted to dock at the marina.  I had told Mom that I would contact her from Highbourne so I knew she would be worried if I wasn’t able to contact her.  I went to theMarinastore to look around and decided to make some sort of purchase in case Mom was monitoring my bank account.  I bought a medium sized bag of Cool Ranch Doritos for $7 and hoped that she would see the purchase.

I made my way back to the boat to wait until my drink date with Maxwell and Jen from the Baba 35.  As I was sitting there snacking on a few Doritos, I tried to deduce the proper time to join them for a drink.  Do I go when it is still light out or wait until dark?  If it is still light out, that puts me right about supper time.  I don’t want to catch them right as they are eating and interrupt dinner.  Everyone usually goes to bed fairly early while at anchor so I didn’t want to wait too late to make an appearance.  Am I supposed to bring anything with me?  Everyone has limited supplies and I don’t want to use up all their provisions.  But is that what you do when you invite someone over and I am supposed to invite them back for another drink date where I provide everything?  I finally settled on a 5:00 time and threw a bottle of rum in my bag before making my way over to their boat, Anastasia.

I had looked at a Baba 30 when I was boat shopping but had not been aboard a Baba 35 before.  It is a very beautiful, classically styled boat which they spent quite a bit of time fixing up.  I got the official tour and was very impressed with the inside of the boat.  Maxwell made up a batch of Rum Punch and poured me a glass with several ice cubes in it.  Living large!

We went into the cockpit and Jen brought out the homemade tortilla chips that she just fried up along with fresh guacamole.  Wow!  What luxury!  I was starting to have second thoughts about my stark provisioning plan!  We had a great evening talking and hanging out and ended up dipping into the bottle of rum that I brought.  They have been cruising for three years and had lots of great advice for me.  Jen went to bed a little early and Maxwell and I continued to talk until about 11 pm that night.

As I was prepping the boat to leave the next morning, Maxwell and Jen came by and dropped off the upcoming Chris Parker weather forecast for me.  There was a front coming through in about two days time so I would probably need to find a good spot to hide out for a day or so.  We said our goodbyes and I pulled up the anchor and set off for Norman’s Cay.

The wind was favorable and I put up full sail on the way to Norman’s Cay.  After talking with Maxwell and Jen I was inspired to try and sail whenever possible.  They had barely used any fuel on their entire trip and even sailed on and off of anchor when possible!  I made great time and had a wonderful although somewhat quick sail.  I treated myself to half the bag of Doritos during the sail.

Lack of fuel was another factor in my decision to sail.  I had not purchased any fuel since Port Lucaya on Dec. 24, over two weeks prior.  I was a little worried about pulling up to the fuel dock on my own in Nassau so I skipped it thinking I would get fuel at Highbourne Cay.  I opted to bypass the Highbourne fuel dock after the hospitality I had at their front desk.  I probably should have done my research a little more before making that decision though! Norman’s Cay was the last stop before entering the Exumas Land and Sea Park and I would not have another chance to get fuel until after passing through it.

I followed the channel around the southern point of Norman’s Cay and anchored at the first recommended anchorage near the beach.  What a beautiful island!  A deep blue channel ran through to the sound with a few shallow areas on either side.  There was a plane wreck about half way up that was supposed to be a good dive spot.  I was anxious to get in contact with Mom and Dad since a few days had already passed since I told them I would check in.

I dove on the anchor and then hopped in the dinghy to head over to Norman’s Beach Club (formally MacDuff’s).  It was a long dinghy ride to the western side of the island and it turns out they were closed on Mondays.  I sat down outside and opened up my laptop to check for a signal.  Still no internet!  The bar was located near the airstrip so I walked back along it and found a path back to the beach.

It was getting to be late afternoon at this point and I stopped at this cool little island on the way back.  The island, called Island 17, couldn’t have been more than a 1000 or so square feet and had one lone palm tree on it.  The tide was very low and I stayed there for an hour or so taking photos in the golden light.  The rocks and coral nearby combined with the nice light made for some really nice photos.

The next day I went back to MacDuff’s to see if they had any options for internet.  The path up to the bar was very pretty and I arrived right as they were opening at 12 pm.  A large puppy greeted me at the door and apparently had been waiting all day for me to arrive.  I sat down at the bar and ordered the famous MacDuff’s Cheeseburger and a nice cold Kalik.  The bar itself was a very attractive, screened in room that led to an open air porch outside.  I stayed at the bar for awhile and talked with the owner, Stefan, while working on a few photos.  They did not have any options for internet so I was still unable to contact Mom and Dad.

Around noon a guy came in with a large cooler and pulled out several huge lobster tails.  He and three other guys were staying at one of the beach cabanas associated with the restaurant and wanted to have the lobster fried up for lunch.  About half an hour later the whole crew came in.  Maria, the cook, had finished making the Lobster Balls (deep fried lobster chunks made with the standard Conch Fritter batter) and laid them out on the bar.  I ended up talking with the guys for awhile and they ended up giving me a whole plate of the lobster to eat!  That was my first taste of spiny lobster and it was really delicious.  I said thank you to the guys and went back to the boat to drop my backpack off.

It was nearly low tide and I wanted to explore a few of the islands.  I saw a huge area of sand bar on the eastern side of the anchorage near Boot Cay that was exposed during the low tide that looked like it might provide for some interesting photo ops.  I tied the dinghy off to a piece of rock on the shore and set off to check it out.

What a cool area!  There were tidal pools all over the place with tons of conch shells spread out across the bay.  The light was great and I kept snapping photos as I continued to make my way around the island.  I came around a point and crossed over to the beach side of the island.  There were large rocks to scramble over with patches of beach in between.  I had a blast taking photos and exploring around.

The light was beginning to fade over the ridge and I had a decision to make.  I was probably about half way around the island.  I could keep working around the outside, try to cut through the middle or return the way that I came.  I hiked up to the top of the ridge and quickly eliminated one option.  A huge valley of dense vegetation lay between me and the next ridge and I couldn’t see the beach where I docked the dinghy at all.  It would take hours to work my through it and I would definitely be back to the boat after dark.  I looked towards the unexplored area of the island and it looked like the coastline started getting a little steeper.  I opted for the cautious route and retraced my path back around to the dinghy.  I made it back to the boat with plenty of daylight and settled in to start Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

The next day I spent most of the afternoon hanging out at Norman’s Beach Club.  I treated myself to another cheeseburger and had a few more cold Kaliks as I petted Salt the dog and exchanged stories with Stefan.  At one point in the afternoon the crew of guys that I met the day before came back to the bar.  Apparently one of the guys named Greg was building a house on the island and the other guys were his friends that came in for the week.  I talked with them for awhile and Greg invited me to have dinner with them that night.  I gladly accepted the invitation.  I also found out that a party was going on later that night for one of the contractors that was finishing up a job on the island.  Sounds like the makings for a fun night!

I left around 4 pm to head back to the boat.  I had parked the dinghy on the interior of the island and walked all the way around the beach to get to the Beach Club earlier.  Stefan told me about a shortcut that cut the trip in half.  I came back to the bar before dark and was handed a cherry stout that Mariah had brewed for the party.  It was the first dark beer I had in a while and it was very tasty!

Greg and his crew came in for dinner and I went to sit down with them.  We had steak that they had brought in from the US and more lobster.  It was a real treat!  There was a cute girl hanging out by the bar who caught my eye.  Greg saw me looking at her and told me to go talk to her.  I said “No way” so he hopped up and walked right over to her.  About 30 seconds later he waved me over and told me to sit down beside her.  Oh man, here we go.  I ended up talking with her most of the night and had some nice conversation.  Jessie’s family operated a delivery business through the Bahamas and she was hanging out with them during her winter break.

It was starting to get late and everybody was clearing out of the bar.  There was a bonfire on the beach for the contractors group but I wasn’t sure if there was an open invitation or not.  I lingered around the bar for awhile and decided it was about time to head home.  Stefan and Jessie were heading to the bonfire but were kind enough to give me a ride back to the boat dock before heading out.

During dinner, Greg told me to stop by early the next morning to grab a certain fishing lure that he wanted me to have.  They were flying out around 10 am so I made my way over to their house around 8 am.  I arrived at the beach house and they were all up eating breakfast.  Greg invited me to join and cooked me two eggs with toast to enjoy.  They were packing up their belongings and waiting for the plane to arrive.  Greg gave me the lure and some stronger test line to put on my fishing rod.  The lure was a huge Mahi lure that was about a foot long!  A local man named Leroy helped me restring the rod and attach the new fishing lure.

I thanked Greg and his friends for all their hospitality and walked back to the boat.  I had no trouble getting the anchor up at 9:33 and set off towards Shroud Cay.  I tried to sail since I was concerned about fuel but I only had three knots of wind!  I put up full sail and attempted to sail for about an hour.  The best I could figure I was drifting sideways and making no progress.  I reluctantly doused the sails and fired up the engine.

I arrived at the mooring field off of Shroud Cay at 11:40 am and looked for a mooring ball.  There were only two other boats there so I had plenty of room.  This was the first time I was trying to pick up a mooring by myself so I was a little anxious.  It seemed like it would be a little more difficult than just randomly dropping an anchor.  I picked my mooring, put the engine in neutral and tried to glide slowly up to the mooring.  I had the boat hook in hand and was able to pick it up with no problems.  I tied everything off and dove down to make sure the mooring looked legitimate.  Satisfied that everything was secure, I prepped a bag to head to shore.

Shroud Cay is known for having a series of creeks that run through the island that you can explore by dinghy.  Jessie’s family had told me about a large washbowl feature at the end of one of the creeks.  It sounded interesting so I set off to find the creek.
The dinghy ride to the northern creek took about 10 minutes.  I saw another dinghy leaving the creek and was able to easily identify the entrance.  It was so beautiful!  The crystal clear water was only about five feet deep and the channel was about 20 yards wide.  The creek kept winding back and forth and was lined with mangroves.  It was fairly low tide but I was able to make my way through without any problems.  I came to an open basin that branched off to the right and left.  I started heading left and quickly ran aground.  The engine cut off so I hopped out and walked it back towards deeper water.  I climbed back in the dinghy and couldn’t get the engine to start!  It kept turning over but wouldn’t crank.  I was little worried that I was running low on fuel but I popped off the cap and there seemed to be enough in the bottom.  I made my way over to the shore and tied off to a dead tree branch.

I tried to pressurize the tank using the small hand bulb.  I kept pumping and pumping and it didn’t seem to do anything.  I thought there might be something clogged in the line but couldn’t tell.  It was about one o’clock and that point and I started trying to think about how I would get back to the boat if I couldn’t get the engine started.  I only had one oar thanks to the Allen’s Cay debacle and I had several miles to cover.  I figured my best bet for the time being was to just get the engine started.  So I started pumping again and kept pumping and pumping for what must have been about forty five minutes.  Finally the tank seemed pressurized and I was able to start the engine.  Thank goodness!

I was near an outlet for the creek but the direction did not seem correct for the washbowl.  I turned to venture down the right fork and only made it a few hundred yards because it was so shallow.  I turned around and went back to where I was working on the engine and continued on towards the left fork.  Right around the bend was my destination.  I had been so close for about an hour and didn’t even know it!

The channel passed through these beautiful dual cliffs and had a large, deep basin on the other side.  The current was flowing swiftly through the pass and swirled around in the washbowl before exiting onto a shallow bank near the sound.  I parked the dinghy and grabbed my mask.  I went around the back to the creek side of the channel and jumped in the water.  The current pushed me along through the pass and shot me out to the washbowl on the other side.  I surveyed the deeper blue water to make sure there weren’t any lingering sharks or other hungry sea creatures waiting below.  All clear!  I swam to the other side of the washbowl and climbed one of the small cliffs above the creek.  It looked clear and deep below so I mustered up some courage and jumped out into the creek.  Phew, no sharp rocks below and a free ride back out to the basin.
I climbed back on to the dinghy beach and dried off for a little bit.  A tall hill rose up right behind the creek so I grabbed the camera and hiked to the top.  I had an incredible view from the top and was able to see almost 360 degrees.  A somewhat broken sign informed me that I was standing at CampDriftwood.  I climbed around to get a few more angles and went back to the dinghy.  It was getting somewhat late at this point so I fired up the dinghy and started back.  Almost right away it was too shallow to go forward.  I hopped out of the dinghy and drug it forward over the sandbar.  The tide was even lower than before but I was able to make it the rest of the way out of the creek without any trouble.  I went back to the boat for dinner and finished reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

I woke up the next morning and tidied things up around the boat.  At 9:00 am the announcement came on from the park headquarters at Warderick Wells.  You have to get on the waiting list to get into their main mooring field and you usually have to reserve a spot at least a day in advance.  The announcement came on and I heard that Jen and Maxwell aboard Anastasia were already there.  I radioed in and got put on the waiting list for the following day.

Several more boats were in the mooring field now and there seemed to be one or two boats with kids aboard.  I was on deck inspecting the mooring lines when a guy pulled up in his dinghy.  His name was Ben and his boat was parked nearby.  He was traveling with his wife and two young children for a while.  They were working their way down the Exumas with two other boats that also had children.  He invited me over for a cold beer later and took off to another boat.

I decided to go back to Washbowl Creek and take the GoPro this time.  I used the suction cup mount and attached it to the front of the dinghy.  I secured it with a tether in case it fell overboard.  I had the camera on all the way through the creek out to the washbowl.  I jumped in the creek a few times and spent a couple of hours getting footage.  I captured another clip of the dinghy ride on the way back to the boat.  I loaded the videos on the laptop when I got back and the lens had fogged up for the whole dinghy ride there and back!  I was so disappointed!  I had a few good shots from some of the other clips and made a mental note not to run the camera for long bursts to prevent the fog problem.

I didn’t get back to the boat until just about sunset.  I sat for awhile and debated whether or not to take Ben up on his beer invitation.  The kids aboard introduced a new variable into the cruising drink etiquette that I had not encountered before.  If grownups go to bed around 8 pm, do the two and four year olds go to bed even earlier?  When is dinner then if their bedtime is that early?  I certainly did not want to interrupt their dinner or set bedtime schedule.  Cold beer is a prized asset and he had invited me to have one with him so I didn’t want to stand him up.  I finally decided to err on the conservative side and not go over after dark.

I woke up somewhat early the next morning and was under way at 0740.  I would have to wait until 0900 to get confirmation on my mooring ball at Warderick Wells but I decided to take a chance and start that way anyhow.  The guide book says that you can purchase an internet pass at the Park Office.  I would finally be able to properly contact Mom and Dad!  The wind was fairly light but I put up full sail to try and conserve fuel.  It was slow going at first but I was able to pick up speed after I rounded a shallow sand bar and adjusted my course.  I readjusted the sail and aimed straight for the channel to the park making 5.7 knots.  At this pace I would make it to the mooring field around 1300 or so.

At 0900 the announcement came on for the mooring ball reservations and it brought both good and bad news.  The good news was that I had a spot in the northern mooring field.  The bad news was that it was Saturday and the park office was closing for the weekend at noon because of office repairs.  I would not be able to get an internet pass until Monday!  Around 1000 Jen from Anastasia hailed me on the radio.  They were with me at Highbourne and knew of my struggle to find an internet signal.  They heard that I would be arriving late to the mooring field and offered to go buy a pass for me at the office before they closed.  Excellent!  I told her she was amazing and that I would come find them once I arrived and settled in.

I was trying to make the best time that I could and continue to conserve fuel.  The jib halyard was a little slack so I decided to tighten it up a bit.  The jib halyard winch is mounted on the cabin top but does not work.  I angled the halyard back down to the jib sheet winch and cranked it up tightly.  Beautiful!  The sail shape looked much better and I made believe that I was going a little bit faster.  I looked down at the winch and the wraps had crossed because of the funky angle.  I spent quite a bit of time and was unable to budge it at all.  I tried rigging lines to another winch to create slack but nothing worked.  I spent most of the sail trying to free it but nothing worked.  Oh well, that will give me a good project to work on later.

The final mile or so to the mooring field was directly into the wind. Now for the moment of truth!  I ran out of fuel with about 13 gallons of fuel left in the tank last year in Florida.  I must have some sort of issue with the placement of my pickup in the fuel tank.  I was right about at that limit now on this trip.  I had one jerry can of diesel left but was worried that it might have been compromised with a little bit of water.  I doused all the sails, turned on the engine and hoped that the fuel would get me to my mooring.

I turned into the northern mooring field and began weaving through all the boats on my way to Mooring 21 at the back.  As I approached I began to formulate a plan for picking up this mooring.  There was a strong current opposing the brisk wind.  The current seemed stronger based on the angle of the other boats already parked.  It seemed like I would need to pass the mooring going decently fast so that I would be able to be up on deck to grab the mooring before the boat started drifting sideways with the current or wind.  I picked my approach line, popped the engine into neutral and grabbed the boat hook as I hopped on deck.  The approach was great and I snagged the mooring with no problem.  Unfortunately I came in a little too hot and shot right past the mooring.  I hung on to the boat hook to try and slow the boat and was promptly pulled off of my feet.  I fell down and slammed my shin on the toe rail.  Ah!  The boat was slowing down a bit and so I reached out to get a better grip on the mooring line.  A barnacle on the mooring line sliced all the way across my right palm.  Damn it!  So with my shin throbbing and my hand bleeding I was able to set the mooring lines with no problem and take a breather.

I was anxious to talk with Mom and Dad so I promptly hopped in the dinghy and went over to find Jen on Anastasia.  Their dinghy was tied to the back of the boat but it didn’t seem like anyone was home.  I stopped by the office on the way back to the boat to explore around for a little bit.  The office was closed as advertised but I spent some time looking at the information posted around the outside.  I went back to the boat to make a little lunch and hang out for a bit.

After an hour or so Jen came by with a guy named John from a neighboring boat.  They had been hiking which explained why her dinghy was still tied to the boat with no one there.  I thanked her for being so thoughtful and traded her $10 for the internet code.  They went back to the boat and I grabbed my laptop to head back ashore.  I set up shop in a picnic shelter on the beach and was finally able to catch up with Mom and Dad for awhile.  They were glad to hear that I was doing well but let me know that they had seen my purchases at Highbourne andNorman’s in my bank account and had been able to track my progress a bit.

I woke up around 8:00 the next morning and made a quick breakfast before heading in to the beach.  There are tons of hiking trails all over the island and I wanted to check a few of them out.  I went to one of the trail heads and took a look at the map.  I decided to head to the famous Boo Boo Hill near the northern side of the island.  There were lots of great photo opportunities along the way and Boo Boo Hill provided a great view of the harbor.  At the top of Boo Boo Hill, cruisers can leave a piece of driftwood decorated with their boat name.

A long trail led south around the eastern side of the island.  It was beautiful in the morning light!  The trail led along a high rocky cliff all the way down the island.  Several sets of cairns led the way and there were lots of little overlooks that provided some incredible views.  The sound was pretty choppy and some large waves kept breaking against the cliffs.  I hiked along this path for about two hours and decided that I better head back to the boat to make sure I make it in time for a late lunch.

On the way back the trail split and I decided to take a detour to Tababuia Beach.  The trail opened up from a dense palm forest right on the beach.  What a stunning beach, maybe one of the most beautiful I’d seen so far!  Perfect white sand, no other footprints, framed in by coral rock on each side and no one in sight.  Wonderful!  I hung out there for awhile but my stomach finally told me that it was time to move on.  There was a trail map on one side of the beach and there was not another path back to the headquarters except back the way I came.  There was a trail that appeared to be on the other side of the rock cliff on the far side of the beach.  I hiked around the outside of the rock along the water and ended up on Butterfly Beach around the corner.  The Causeway Trail back to the park headquarters was on the other side of the beach and I was able to make the rest of the trip fairly quickly.  I went back to the boat and made a large lunch before settling down to start reading Treasure Island for the rest of the day.

I went to the office around 9:30 the next morning to pay up and take a look around the store.  I met Darby and Andrew in the office and talked with them for awhile about the different islands.  I paid up for my two nights at Shroud Cay and the two at Warderick Wells.  There were two guys named Bruce and John that were volunteering at the park and lived on a couple of the moorings near me.  They were heading out that day to go a little further south to Black Point for laundry.  I wanted to do a little more hiking but went back to the boat to make lunch and fuel up before the hike this time.

Right as I was finishing up the dishes, Jen, Maxwell, John and his wife Cyndi came by and invited me to go hiking with them.  Great timing!  I met them on the beach and we started the hike with a trek up to Boo Boo Hill.  We continued south down the sound side and ended up doing the same trek I had made the previous day.  We all shared stories and ended up having a really nice hike.  As we were finishing up the hike Maxwell asked if I had enough fuel or not.  Wow, psychic!  I told him that I was running low but had one jerry can left that I think could get me to Staniel Cay.  I did request his help with the jib halyard problem though.  When we made it back to the dinghy dock Maxwell hopped in with me and went back to the boat to check out the issue.  It was a very easy fix with the two of us and he was back to his boat in no time.

I woke up early the next morning to prepare to make a move further south.  It was a favorable wind and it looked as if everyone was thinking the same thing.  I inspected the diesel in the jerry can and it seemed to be ok.  I emptied it into the fuel tank and figured that would be plenty to get me to Staniel Cay for a proper fill up.  Right as I was preparing to leave I noticed that Maxwell had left his Chacos in the dinghy when he had come over to help with the halyard.  I ran them over to Anastasia and said my goodbyes to them.  He wrote down the latest forecast for me and I went back to the boat to get ready to head out.

As I was leaving the channel a guy aboard a boat named Polar Pacer asked where I was heading.  I answered Staniel Cay and he told me to keep an eye out for a boat named Sunday’s Child there with a couple about my age aboard.  I thanked him for the information and continued to motor out the channel.

To be continued!

I met Ted and Maggie, a young couple on board Sunday’s Child, while anchored out near Staniel Cay.  They had been traveling since October with their dog Chessie and were working their way down the Exumas.  We got along well and decided to travel together for awhile (we actually ended up staying together for over two months and making our way back to NC together!).

They were a couple days ahead of me (thanks to a running aground experience near Staniel Cay, that story will come later!) and had stopped at Galliot Cay.  They ended up dinghying up to Little Farmer’s where I stayed the night and riding with me down to Galliot Cay.  While in transit, we talked through our hunting expedition.  Ted and I planned on going out to search for conch, lobster and fish.  I had not caught any of these creatures yet on the trip and was excited to have an experienced teammate to lead the way.

We ate a quick lunch and hopped in their dinghy.  We went around the corner towards the sound side and threw out the anchor.  Ted found a few conchs here last time so it seemed as good a place to start as any.

Conch Side Note

In some ways conch are the easiest of the three food groups to find.  They do not move fast at all and don’t put up much resistance once in your possession.  The primary trick is being able to spot them in the sand and being able to dive down deep enough to grab them.  They can be in almost no water in some areas and deeper than we can dive in others.  The lip of the shell flares out once the conch is mature, making it legal to consume.  Cleaning them is an entirely different issue I will cover later!

We spit in our masks, put on our fins and hopped in the water.  The water was a little cool but we adjusted quickly.  We began to swim around and look for conch.  The water was about 20-30 feet deep with a slightly grassy bottom.  We swam around for awhile without much success.  I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for but I figured I would know a conch if I saw one.  We kept swimming around and searching.  Bingo!  Conch spotted!  It was in about 20 feet of water and looked to be a big one.  I dove down, making sure to clear my ears as I descended and grabbed the conch.  I swam to the surface with the large conch and presented my find to Ted.  He immediately deemed it King Conch for its size and said he had not found one that large before.  I swam the shell back to the dinghy and continued to look around.  Ted dove down a few times and collected two or three more conchs before we moved on.

Our next stop was a shallow cove with a beautiful reef to look for fish.  There were tons of beautiful fish but most were not ones that we would eat.  I was following Ted when all of a sudden he pulled his sling back and speared a fish.  It turned out to be a lionfish and I surfaced next to him as he was flinging the fish onto the rocky shore.  He pointed at a couple more nearby and we went back down to go after them.

Lionfish Side Note

Lionfish are an invasive species that are a big problem all along the East coast, especially the Bahamas.  They have venomous spines and no particular natural predators (except us!).  They kill all the fish on a reef and are destroying the local fishing industry and reef ecosystem.  I remember hearing of one study that says lionfish can kill three quarters of a reef’s population in just five weeks!  Cruisers are asked to help eradicate them by removing as many as possible while diving.  They can be eaten but you have to be very careful not to touch their spines as the effects of the venom are very painful. 

We both shot a couple more lionfish and then swam back to the dinghy.  It was around 2:30 pm at this point so we returned to Sunday’s Child with King Conch and his cronies to grab our cleaning tools.  Now for the fun part!  Ted’s first conch cleaning operation was performed in the cockpit of the boat a few weeks ago.  Maggie and he quickly agreed that this procedure was best reserved for any sandy beach well away from the boat!

Conch Cleaning Side Note  

I think there is an inversely proportional relationship for conch between the ease of collection and difficulty in cleaning.  The conch retracts and holds itself in the shell using its abductor muscle.  There is a long fingernail looking claw called the operculum that seals it in the shell and I suppose is used as some sort of defense.  The trick to extracting them is to chisel a hole in the shell two rows of spires from the back so that you can access the abductor muscle.  Once the hole is made you can take a fillet knife and sever the muscle.  They should come out of the shell easily after that (I was not very good at this part).  Then you take them to the water and begin to clean them.  They are really mucusy, gross looking creatures!  They have crazy, long eye balls and colorful entrails.  I’ll skip most of the gory details but you basically remove everything that is not the muscle.  The next step is to remove the brown skin on the muscle.  At this point in the trip we were peeling them like a carrot (we found out later that there was a quicker way!).  It would take about 10-15 minutes to clean one.

We pulled up to the beach and Ted prepared for his Conch Extraction and Cleaning demonstration.  Ted took care of the first one and was able to easily remove it from the shell.  I took the chisel and grabbed one of the smaller conch to try first.  King Conch would have to wait!  The shell was very hard but I was able to chisel through with a few strikes.  I sliced what I took to be the abductor muscle and the conch came out easily.  Nice!  We cleaned the conch in the water and threw the cleaned portion in a bucket.

Now for King Conch!  I chiseled through and sliced what I took to be the abductor muscle.  I grabbed the operculum and tried to pull it out.  Not happening!  I tried slicing again, still nothing!  I battled with it for about 10 minutes while Ted cleaned the rest of the conch.  I finally had to tap out and call for backup.  Ted worked with it for awhile and was finally able to remove King Conch from his shell.  We finished cleaning all the conchs and went back to the boat to tenderize the meat.

The edible part of the conch is basically just a large muscle.  We put it under plastic wrap and hit it with a hammer until it was soft.  This takes awhile but is not difficult.  Maggie planned on making Cracked Conch with it for dinner that night.  She planned on making a beer batter mix to roll them in before frying.  We needed an egg or two for the recipe but did not have any on board.  We went over to the only other boat in the anchorage and asked if he could spare two eggs for our batter.  Luckily he had plenty and gave us a couple to take to Maggie.

It was about 3:30 pm so Ted and I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon looking for lobster.  Ted had found a few at a nearby island last time he was through so we started there.  We threw out the anchor and hopped in the water.

Lobster Side Note  

The spiny lobster that we were looking for are different than Maine lobster with the large claws.  Their primary defense is a good hiding spot under a rocky ledge and the small spikes all over their body.  You have to dive down and look under the rock ledges, being careful not to stir up sand on the bottom.  Once a lobster is spotted (usually from its long antenna sticking out), you try to get as close as possible and shoot it through the head.  The tail is powerful and sometimes they are able to shake loose from the spear if you shoot them through the tail.  If you miss on the first shot they can retreat further under the ledge and it can be difficult to get a second shot.

We started swimming around and diving down to look under ledges and probable areas.  We searched for a long time and did not have much luck.  The reef around the island was beautiful though and I enjoyed seeing all the fish.  I finally spotted a lobster and signaled to Ted to make sure it was large enough to be legal.  He gave me an OK signal and I went down to take the first shot.  Big miss!  Not even close!  I stirred up a little sand and it was difficult to see.  Ted went in for the second shot and managed to hit it.  It shook loose however and burrowed deeper in the cave.  After several more attempts, Ted was able to get the lobster.  He was a decent, medium sized one.  We were able to get one more before heading back to the boat.

We climbed aboard Sunday’s Child and cleaned the lobster.  The inverse relationship exists with lobster as well.  They are difficult to catch but very straightforward to clean.  The tail is the part we are interested in and it removes from the body easily.  We poured our first batch of drinks (with ice!) and started prepping dinner as we listened to an ACC basketball game on their satellite radio.

We had a feast that night!  The cracked conch was the first course and was delicious!  There was plenty and we were able to eat our fill.  Ted prepared the lobster tails with a garlic butter combo and grilled them to perfection!  We sat around the rest of the night telling stories and enjoying a few drinks.

I headed out ahead of them the next morning on my way to Georgetown to pick up my next crew mate, Bill.  We met back up in Georgetown a few days later.  More adventures to come soon!

Here is a link to the slideshow: www.sailawaywebdesign.com/berryislands.html.  Enjoy!

We woke up the morning after Christmas after a peaceful night at the Slaughter Harbor anchorage.  After a little bit of breakfast and some coffee I started to gather my things for a swim to the beach.  On Mark’s suggestion, I decided to take one of the large fenders with me in case I got tired on the way.  I put my book, sunscreen and water in a dry bag and tied it to the fender.  I put on my snorkel and fins and did my best impression of a proper SCUBA overboard roll that I could.

The swim in seemed to take forever!  It was probably about a quarter mile or so to the closest beach.  I foolishly did not put on any dive boots to protect my feet and I could feel where the fins were rubbing my ankles raw about half way to the beach.  Oh well, live and learn I guess!  Right as I was approaching the beach, a four or five foot long fish swam right underneath me.  Since I am lacking a bit in fish identification skills, I kept a close eye on him.  He circled around behind me and kept about ten feet away from me as I swam in.  I turned around and paddled backwards for a while to keep an eye on him.  Eventually he had seen enough and we parted ways.

The approach to the beach was pretty shallow so I ended up walking in for the last stretch.  There were no cruise ships in that day so I had the beach completely to myself.  It was definitely a strange sight.  There were hundreds of chairs lined up all along the different beaches and dozens of little straws cabanas sprouting up in between.  The beaches and water were incredible!  I kept laughing to myself saying that I was in my very own Corona commercial.  I walked for a long time and kept rounding the different points and discovering a beautiful beach around each corner.

Now that I was sufficiently dry from the swim in I sat down to put on sunscreen and rest for awhile.  Having only been in theBahamasa few days I was still pretty pale at that point.  I decided to head back to the lounge chair area and continue reading “On the Road” under the shade of the cabanas.

Mark is a pretty thorough guy.  He has a handheld VHF that we stored away in my dry bag and we planned a 2 pm check in time to make sure everything was ok.  I radioed in at the agreed hour and I told him I was planning on hanging out for a little bit longer.  The swim in had left me with four nice blisters from the fins so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the return journey.  I finally made the painful swim back and Mark had dinner just about ready when I returned.  We took it easy for the rest of the night and read in our bunks.

We decided that our next stop would be the beach side anchorage off of Great Harbor Cay.  The total trip was a little over 12 miles so we left around 9 am the next morning.  We motored out of the harbor and put up our sails as we passed all the cruise ships and turned south.  The winds were light and a little shifty so it took us quite a while to make the 12 mile run.  It was getting somewhat late in the day so we decided to motor the last four miles or so to get to the anchorage in good daylight.

The water in the recommended anchorage spot was about 7-8 feet deep almost all the way up to the beach.  We were only about 100 feet off the beach when we finally got our anchor set around 3:00 pm.  The guide books said that there was a restaurant right near us called the Beach Club.  We made sure our anchor was set and we swam in to search for food and drinks.

We asked the first person we saw on the beach if he could direct us toward the Beach Club.  He was not too sure and gave us a few vague directions towards the right.  We started our way down the beach and kept our eyes peeled for anything that looked like a restaurant.  The beach was a lovely, white sand, crescent shape and we were on the far side away from town.  We walked for quite a while and finally came up on a family hanging out on the beach.  We inquired about the Beach Club and they pointed all the way down the beach back to where we started from.  We must have blown right past it!  They seemed to think that it closed at 4 pm and we might be out of luck for food there.  One lady offered to give us a ride into town a couple of miles down the road to a place they knew would be open.  We told them we would gladly accept the ride if it wasn’t a bother to them.  The two husbands ended up driving us to the Beach Bar which turned out to be closed and then over to the Rocky Hill Pool Bar in town.

The Pool Bar was pretty much empty except for two people sitting at the counter.  A lady stood up and introduced herself.  We double checked to make sure she was serving food and cold drinks before our ride took off.  Rosebud confirmed that they were and we thanked the guys for the ride and sat down to look over the menu.  Everything was a little pricey except for the burgers so we ordered two burgers and two Kaliks (the local version of Corona).  Rosebud fired up the grill and cooked us up the tastiest burger I’ve had in a long time.  Mark loves a nice dessert to finish up the meal and ordered the Pistachio Nut cake to top off dinner.

We stayed for a couple of drinks and decided it was about time to head back to the boat before it got too dark.  The walk back took a little longer than we anticipated and the sky kept getting darker and darker.  Along this walk we started thinking about the swim back to the boat.  “Hey Mark…you didn’t happen to turn on the anchor light before jumping in did you?”.  “No…I guess you didn’t either then huh…”.  Hmm, not our best move of the trip so far.  We get out to the beach and it is pitch black!  We walked down to where we roughly thought the boat was and we couldn’t see a thing!  We sat down on the beach and tried to let our eyes adjust to the dark for a while.  In so many cases we have over planned everything yet here we sat without a flashlight, fins or anything to help us locate the boat!

It was about 7:00 and we started to accept the sad fact that we would probably have to sleep on the beach and wait for the sun to come up before locating Arcturus.  I was definitely not going to just jump out in the dark water and start swimming around blindly looking for the boat.  There was a large house a little ways down the beach and I went towards it to see if maybe their porch lights would allow us to find the boat.  I crouched down on the beach in front of their house and looked out.  Contact!  I could just make out the white hull and I was sure it was the boat.  I let my eyes adjust a little long and it was definitely her.  Fantastic!

I jogged back down to Mark and we started trying to figure out Phase II of the plan.  All sorts of scenarios ran through my head.  “Hey Mark…I hate to even bring it up…but um, sharks usually come out at night time right?”  I’m no expert but I have seen my fair share of Shark Week stories.  We talked it over and came up with a plan.  We didn’t notice any reefs around and it was all sand around our boat.  Not exactly a shark haven.  Mark used to swim a lot and volunteered to go first and turn on the anchor light for me.  I wasn’t about to argue with him so I lined up with him and the boat and sat on the beach as he disappeared into the water.

That was a scary five minutes!  It seemed to take forever but I finally saw the anchor light pop on and off several times to signal his safe arrival.  Now it’s my turn!  I tried to push aside all the Shark Week horror stories and I put on my mask and snorkel and waded out.  My heart was thumping as I started swimming and trying to remain calm.  I kept waiting for some big fish face to come up from the dark water and give me a scare.  The swim back went just fine and it was actually really beautiful.  The water lit up with bioluminescence with every stroke and was a pretty cool sight in retrospect.  I climbed up our homemade swim ladder and gave Mark a “We’re stupid but still alive” high five.  We settled down for the night glad not to have to sleep in the sand.

I woke up at about 4 am to the boat really rocking around.  The wind had shifted and there were some decent waves coming through the harbor.  Mark was up and we decided that the anchor was holding fine and we were safe for the time being.  The rough conditions continued through the morning but the anchor was holding great.  We had about 120 feet of thick chain out with a 25 lb CQR on the end.  Mark stayed on the boat and I swam in with my camera and laptop to try and find an internet spot.  I walked up to the Beach Club and they pointed me in the direction of the airport for a wireless signal.  It was only a block away and they had a little hut on the side of the parking lot for people to sit and wait for their flights.  The airport itself was very small with a few planes parked along the side.  I set up shop to write a few emails and post the previous slideshow.

A couple of guys came off of the runway and started talking to me.  Jerry had recently purchased a house out there that he was refitting and his friend John had come with him to hang out for a few days.  John turned out to be a sailor and Jerry was a pilot so I told them they had to meet Mark.  They invited us over to their house for Happy Hour later.  Shortly after they left my computer battery died.  I walked up to the Beach Club for a charge and Jerry and John were there with their wives.  I talked with Peggy and Suzie for a while as we ate lunch and agreed to see them later at their house for a drink.  Mark wandered into the Beach Club a little bit later and we went back to the airport for awhile as I finished up the rest of my web work.

Even though we left a light on and were both armed with flashlights this time, we made the decision to head over to our new friends’ house a little early after our previous night’s adventure.  We arrived at the house and John and Peggy invited us in.  The house sat right on Hole 6 of the golf course and looked out over the beautiful beach.  I snapped a few photos of Arcturus from their porch and went inside.  It was a lovely two story, four bedroom house that they were in the process of redoing.  Jerry and Suzie returned from a run into town and we all sat around and talked about sailing and flying and the history of the island for a long time.  With the sun low on the horizon, we said our farewells and decided to try a daylight swim back to the boat this time.  The anchorage had calmed down and we had a nice swim back before dinner.

We had a tough time convincing ourselves to leave Great Harbor Cay the next morning.  We had a great burger place right near the boat and the beachfront was really beautiful.  We wanted to make it to Chub Cay for New Year’s Eve so we reluctantly pulled up the anchor and had a mid morning departure for Little Harbor Cay.

We had to motor the majority of our passages so far but the winds were actually favorable to sail as we left the harbor and turned south.  We put up full sail and turned the motor off.  We had a fantastic sail as we headed south about a mile or so off the coastline.  After a pleasant couple of hours we doused the sails and motored towards our anchorage.  Little Harbor Cay boasted a towering 80 ft elevation and rocky coastline.  We kept it to starboard and turned in right before Cabbage Cay.

We were working our way between the two islands and ended up running aground after we missed our turn to our intended anchorage.  So close!  We started wiggling around and trying to work our way backwards against the incoming current.  A power boat further up the creek came out and offered to help pull us off.  Just as we were getting ready to set things up, we broke free and were able to take the correct turn before Lizard Cay.  We circled our intended anchorage which seemed to be surrounded by some ominous looking rock clusters.  We finally settled on a spot and dropped the anchor.  We had a tough time getting settled because the incoming current was the opposite direction of the light breeze.  We did a few clean up things around the boat as we hovered for a while half way between forces.

I have never attempted to set up the Portabote on board before so Mark and I talked over a plan to set it up.  We were only 50 feet from a nice little beach so I figured I could swim the dinghy in and assemble it there.  As we are getting things in position, Mark wanted to try and put it together on board first.  It actually worked!  The dinghy is 12 feet long and 4.5 feet wide when opened up.  We put it cross ways over the cockpit and were able to awkwardly assemble it without having to ferry it to shore.  Excellent!

The tide settled during all of this and we finally came around to point into the wind.  We mounted the outboard on the dinghy and set off for Flo’s Conch Bar, the only establishment on Little Harbor Cay.  The guide books all said that they required three hours notice for their meals so we didn’t expect any food that night.  We ran aground two times on the way in but finally made it safely to the dinghy dock.  I felt a bug bite right away when I jumped on the dock and looked over my shoulder to see at least twenty or so mosquitoes on my back.  Woah!  We gotta get out of here!  I swatted a handful of them before we jogged up the dock where a slight breeze helped keep the bugs away.  The path up the hill to Flo’s was lined with hundreds of conch shells.  We walked into the screened porch and ordered a couple of cold Kaliks.

We looked longingly at the menu but the kitchen was closed for the night as we expected.  They had a wireless signal but I could not manage to get it to work.  We quickly grew tired of the news channel that was on headed back to the boat.  The lady told us of the buoys to look for that marked the channel and we had an easy passage back.

We woke up the next morning and decided to have a beach day.  We ate a quick breakfast, brewed some coffee and hopped in the dinghy for the short row to the beach.  The island was half beach, half scraggly coral rock.  The light was good for photos so I set off to explore the island with coffee in one hand and my camera in the other.  I rounded the first rocky point and another spectacular beach curved around in front of me.  Palm trees lined the beach and the water was a beautiful light blue.  I came up to the next point and had a decision to make.  There was no path that I could find so I could either crawl through the dense vegetation or walk over a long expanse of the sharp looking rocks.  I opted for Plan B and started walking gingerly over the rock outcrop.  After about 25 yards I rounded the corner and another 25 yard section separated me from another stunning beach.  I managed to make it to the wonderfully soft sand with no blood shed.  This next beach was longer and had a section of about 45 yards that was completely covered with huge conch shells!  I worked my way through them but it looked fairly well picked over.

I kept walking to the next point and found a large, beautiful shell waiting right on the tide line.  Awesome!  As I get to the next point I struggled to balance the new shell, coffee mug and expensive camera without stepping on any of the numerous sharp rocks.  I found a nice shady palm area and left the shell and coffee mug to retrieve on the trek back.  I waded through the water with my camera to the next beach and snapped a few photos.  I started dreading the return trip over the long rocky stretch and ended up leaving the camera hanging from a palm tree to rescue with the dinghy later.  I retraced my steps and picked up the coffee mug and shell.  I decided to create a Plan C with my rock section and waded out into the water to bypass the painful cape.  Mark was hanging out on the beach and we hopped into the dinghy to go and secure my camera.  I decided to row instead of motor and we ended up circumnavigating the island after we got to Canon Beach.

We finished up our beach day and went back to the boat for a late lunch.  As we approached the boat, a huge fish comes out from the shadow of the boat.  He looked just like the other one at Slaughter Harbor so I put on my mask and stuck my head in the water to investigate a little closer.  He was a big one and seemed content to just hang out around the boat with us.

I ate a quick lunch and jumped into the water to snorkel over to a nearby rock island.  The swim was short and worth the effort.  A small reef surrounded the little island and there were lots of little reef fish and interesting things to explore.  When I got back to the boat a few more boats had arrived at our anchorage.  I saw one of them bump the ground as they came in which helped lessen the embarrassment of our entry a bit.

We radioed in to Flo’s and they had closed the kitchen for the day.  No conch fritters for us!  I hopped in the dinghy and rowed over there anyhow to sit on the dock and try my luck with the internet one more time.  I saw several sea stars (not star fish!) in the channel on the way and had an easy trip with the current at my back.  The internet was still not working so I made my way back to the boat.  I made the turn to go into our anchorage and the current was really flowing out!  I had the outboard on the dinghy but I wanted to put my newfound rowing skills to the test.  It took quite a while to get back to the boat but I made it without relying on the engine.

I woke up early on New Year’s Eve so that we would have plenty of time to make the 25 mile leg to Chub Cay.  All of our previous runs had taken longer than expected and I didn’t want to come in too late and miss the celebrations.  We had our breakfast and had the anchor up around 8 am.  Mark was at the wheel and I was working with the chart plotter.  All of sudden we ran aground right near Cabbage Cay.  We were right in the middle of what was supposed to be a clear area but we had hit a little sandbar.  The tide was very low but we were able to eventually work our way backwards off of the sandbar.  We passed the obstruction and had plenty of water the rest of the way.  No harm done!

There was absolutely no wind and the sea was very flat.  Well, I guess we are motoring again!  We were able to make a consistent five knots and so we enjoyed the warm weather and read on deck.  I had finished “On the Road” and started “Shadow Divers”.  Most of the passage was uneventful.  The water was beautiful and it was interesting to look at the islands through binoculars as we passed by close to shore.  We were only a half mile or so from the islands but we were in about 2000 feet of water most of the way!  As we got close to Chub Cay the water depth was around 50 feet and we could see all the way to the bottom!  I stood on the bowsprit for a while and just watched the ocean floor go by.

We were making great time and pulled into Chub Cay Marina around 1:30 pm.  We passed by quite a few expensive boats on the way to our slip.  It looked to be a nice protected harbor and the floating docks were top notch.  One of the dock hands waved us over and helped us into our slip.  He introduced himself as Scotty and gave me a high five for wearing a Braves hat.  He directed us towards the office and I went up to pay.

The harbor was fairly empty and there was no surrounding town so I started setting myself up for a low key New Year’s Eve celebration.  A menu for the New Year’s Eve dinner buffet was posted on the door of the office.  Wonderful sounding dishes were listed one after another.  Things like cracked conch, grilled wahoo and grilled shrimp salad were listed right down the page.  The only bad news was the $65 price tag at the bottom of the page.  No way, looks like soup on board for me!

I settled up at the office and they gave us the bad news that the Island Shoppe had just closed at noon and would not open again until after we left!  We were definitely having trouble finding any good celebration drinks!  Mark met me at the office and we went into Harry’s Bar next door for a nice lunch.  They were closing at 2 pm to prepare the buffet so we just looked at this meal as our proper dinner.  We each ordered a tasty burger (usually the most reasonable thing on the menu) and Mark had a piece of homemade chocolate cake for dessert.  We bought a few Diet Cokes and Kaliks from the bar to enjoy later on that evening.  After lunch Mark made his way to the showers and I went to take a dip in the pool.

There were several half constructed buildings along the way to the pool.  I rounded the corner to the pool and it was beautiful.  One edge of the pool waterfalled down to another level so that it looked kind of like an endless pool.  A tiki bar sat right in the middle so that you could swim up from one side or walk from the beach to the other.  The water was a bit chilly so I only stayed in for a minute or so.  On the way back I noticed several homemade signs that said to stop by the Tiki Bar for Happy Hour for $3 beers and $5 mixed drinks.  Some of the signs said 3 pm and others said 5 pm so I figured I would stop by around 4:30 pm or so and check it out.

I went back to the boat and gathered my things to head to the shower.  The showers were located outside of the marina fence and were in a small little house a few hundred yards away.  On the way back from the showers I noticed that another sailboat had docked right beside us (we were the only two in the place!).  I looked at the name on the back and it was named Arcturus as well!  No way!  I have never seen another Arcturus so I walked up to the lady in the cockpit and introduced myself.  It turns out her husband Herman had sailed down from Philadelphia by himself and she met him later on in Florida.  It was an Endeavor 40 and they had owned it for about 20 years.  It turns out General Patton owned a boat named Arcturus and he named his after that.

Around 4:30 or so, I went back to the Tiki Bar to see if anything was happening for Happy Hour.  No one was there at all!  I was a little early so I walked back to the boat for a bit.  As I am walking back down the dock, Herman and Lucy yell hello from their cockpit.  I told them there was no Happy Hour at the Tiki Bar yet and Herman quickly invited me over for an impromptu Happy Hour aboard the other “Arcturus”.  Mark was “on the phone” with the amazing Google Voice app so I motioned my intent to him and walked over to chat with Herman and Lucy.

Lucy made a delicious rum and coke with some select Bacardi and we sat around the cockpit sharing stories.  Mark joined us later and we had a great time listening to all the amazing travel tales of our new friends and sharing a few of our own.  They were a great couple and we could tell they had been to some interesting places and had a lot of fun in the process.  The evening was wearing on and we made our exit so that they could get ready for the big dinner that night.

We headed over to the Tiki Bar to see if things had started up there yet or not.  There were two guys sitting around the bar but no one behind it yet.  We sat down and they offered us a beer out of their cooler.  They were crew for one of the large yachts that had come in.  There were seven of them total and they had just arrived early that afternoon.  The sun started setting and I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me.

After a while a couple of golf carts pulled up and several people piled out.  The party had arrived!  They had several cases of different liquors, mixers and beer and two girls started setting everything up behind the bar.  Apparently the Tiki Bar had been out of operation for a while but they occasionally came in and set up shop during the summer time to make some extra college cash.  Works for me!  Everyone settled in and started chatting.  Through the next few hours we had conversations with just about everybody.  The two bartenders were Sarah and Jaclyn.  Sarah’s parents, Joe and Jennifer, had a house on the island.  Jaclyn was Sarah’s best friend and made the trip with the family for many years.  Rhonda and her husband (Woodbine, I think?) were also friends of the family that had come out.  The crew of the motor yacht was a lot of fun too so things started looking promising for an exciting night.  We even had fireworks right around sunset!

Everyone left to get ready for dinner and Mark and I went back to have a delicious soup dinner.  One of the marina guys told me about a place called the Hilltop near the shower area that was going to have music and people later on that night.  We sat around for awhile chatting and enjoying our cold Kaliks before heading back to the Tiki Bar.  Everyone was already set up when we returned and we settled down to enjoy the last three hours of 2011.  There were lots of great conversations and Woodbine even breathed fire once with one of the shots.  The girls were giving everyone one complimentary 151 shot so I joined in on that.  Mark was “taking care of the Skipper” and making sure I didn’t go empty handed.

Right around 11:45 pm we made a mad scramble to pack everything up and try and make it to the Hilltop in time for midnight.  Mark and I helped load things up and we hopped on the golf carts to off load everything at their house.  We rushed everything onto the porch and we took off on a crazy, high speed roller coaster ride down the dirt path to the Hilltop.

The Hilltop ended up being the perfect spot that Mark and I were looking for.  There was loud music coming from inside and quite a few people dancing inside.  The building itself looked to be a house that had been cleared out and turned into a bar.  They had a TV on inside with the ball dropping and we were able to grab one last drink in 2011 before midnight.

The rest of the night was a lot of fun; certainly lots of dancing and celebrating to be had by all.  We called it a somewhat early night and went to bed around 1 am.  Mark and I woke up the next morning to clean the boat for a bit.  We had promised Jaclyn and Sarah that we would take them sailing around 11 am or so.  We weren’t sure if that was going to happen or not but it was a good excuse to clean the boat.  Joe came by and told us to swing by the house a little later for coffee if we wanted and that the sail might be questionable.  As we were walking up, Jaclyn and Sarah informed us a sailing trip wasn’t looking too enticing after the affects of New Year’s celebration.  No worries!  We stopped by the house for a bit and went back to the boat.

Mark was hoping to get one more piece of that delicious cake before leaving so we went to Harry’s for lunch before heading out.  We left the harbor and anchored out off of the beach near the Tiki Bar.  Mark opted to hang out on the boat and I rowed into the beach with the camera to try and get some nice sunset shots with Arcturus in the harbor.  I brought my Exumas chart books and studied up on the next leg of the trip.

Sarah and Jaclyn saw me on the beach and we hung out and talked for a while.  After they left, Joe came by to see about our plans.  I talked with him for a long time and he told me lots of great stories about previous boating trips and diving excursions.  He definitely has an adventurous spirit and it was lot of fun talking with him.  The girls came back by a little later and brought a gift of some of the homemade doughnuts they had just made.  Awesome!

It was still a little while before sunset and Joe came around once more and we talked for a while longer about the next leg of the trip.  I walked around as the sun began to drop and tried to pick the best vantage point for the photos.  The clouds were great and I had some nice palm trees in the foreground.  The light was great for a long time and I think I was able to capture a few winners for sure.

The bugs started eating me up so I rowed back to the boat and Mark was just finishing up the dinner prep as I tied off the boat.  Definitely a good crew mate!  Our plan was to leave around 11 pm so that we had plenty of time to make the 36 mile trip to Nassau and arrive in daylight.  A really nasty cold front was coming through the next night and following day so we needed to get in before that.

We pulled up the anchor at eleven and set out to another calm night.  There was hardly any wind at all and the moon was beautiful reflecting off the water.  I took the first shift from 2200 to 0130.  I had finished “Shadow Divers” in nearly one day on the trip over and needed a new book.  I took out the Kindle and looked at the list of older books that I had on reserve.  I decided on “Moby Dick” and read through the whole shift.  Amazing book!  Great descriptions and storytelling.  Mark wasn’t able to sleep and came on at 0130.  He let me sleep an extra half hour before waking me up at 0500 (great crew mate!).

Still no wind so we motored the rest of the way into Nassau.  There were three cruise ships making their way into the harbor as we approached but they cleared out well before we got there.  We radioed Harbor Patrol for permission to enter and turned to go into the harbor at 0800.  We passed by lots of huge ships and chose Nassau Yacht Haven as our docking spot.

We pulled in with no problems and got checked into the office.  We ate breakfast, showered up and went into town to explore.  After the beauty of the outer islands, neither of us were particularly impressed with Nassau.  I was anxious to find an internet signal and check in with the family.  Little did we know that Jan. 2 is a holiday and hardly anything was open.  We ended up at Starbucks and I was able to check in and do some work.

The rest of our time in Nassau was fairly uneventful.  We ate breakfast at the reasonable Café Carib each morning before I went over to Starbucks for my internet signal.  I spent most of the three days in Starbucks catching up on the work that needed to be done with Camp and the business.  We went to Happy Hour at the Poop Deck restaurant near the marina for complimentary Conch Fritters and lower priced beer.  We made a trip one morning into the cruise liner district onBay Streetand were blown away by the amount of expensive shops around.  The rest of Nassau seemed to be in rougher shape but this area was over polished with lots of people running around shopping.  Kind of overwhelming compared to our quiet beachside anchorages.

So now I am preparing for the next leg of the trip.  Mark left this afternoon to head back to Florida.  It will be quite different without him for sure.  We had lots of great conversations and he was always willing to help out with everything around the boat.

John and Jess, a cool couple that I met at the Poop Deck last night, sold me on the aquarium over at Atlantis on Paradise Island.  It sounded pretty interesting so I went that direction after Mark took off.  The line just to purchase a pass for the aquarium looked to be over an hour long so I decided to save that for another trip.  I have been here most of the afternoon wandering through the casinos and looking at all the fancy buildings.  I purchased a high speed internet pass for the day and have been finishing up the rest of my work.  I am hanging out in one of the restaurants now trying to clear everything off of the table before the next leg of the trip.

I will probably be in Nassau one more day and then head out early the morning of Jan. 7 to go over to Allen’s Cay.  From there I’ll work my way down the Exuma chain for a while and probably go as far as Georgetown before turning around.  I’ll post a slideshow with more photos right after this.  If you made it through this crazy long post then I am really impressed. Nice work and thanks for reading!  More stories and photos to come soon! -Daniel

Here is the link for the slideshow of photos of the Northern Bahamas.  More photos to come soon as we continue to travel south!  www.sailawaywebdesign.com/inthebahamas.html

Jimmy, Mike, Dad and I left from Morehead City on Dec. 1 and made it down to Ft. Lauderdale by Dec. 11.  I plan on writing quite a bit about that adventure later on but I figured I better start with just a few days ago and work my way back as I can.

Mark drove down from Panama City on Wednesday Dec. 21.  He arrived around 9 pm.  I had been on my own in Ft. Lauderdale for about five days since Jimmy and Mike flew out.  I didn’t have a whole lot to do so most of my time was spent hanging out on the beach and prepping things on the boat.  The last three nights I had spent most of my time at Dirty Blondes Sports Bar.  They had pool tables and a bunch of games including a great pinball machine (World Poker Tour).  There weren’t a lot of customers since it was the week before Christmas so a couple of the bartenders and I shared some great conversations thanks to a fairly empty bar.

Here’s a quick background about how I met Mark.  I purchased my boat in May 2010 and had it stored at Deaton Yacht Sales out of the water.  The broker called me one day and asked if it would be ok if someone came aboard and took a look at the boat.  I said sure no problem and Mark left a note with nice compliments about the boat.  In February of 2011, right after returning from Ft. Lauderdale last year, Mark gave me a call and said that he was back in town from Florida to check out another boat.  We decided to meet for a cup of coffee and see each other face to face.  We met in Oriental and it happened to be that I needed someone to help me bring the boat out to Ocracoke.  I had brought the boat down from Morehead City to Oriental by myself and he agreed to help me bring the boat over to Ocracoke.  We met up and started the trip over to Ocracoke.  It should have been about an eight hour trip but we had a nasty head wind in our face the entire way and ended up taking about fourteen hours.  It was about 40 degrees and we had sporadic showers that drenched us every few hours.  We were making such slow time that we had to come into Ocracoke harbor at night, freezing cold, with a light rain shower to top it off.  Not the best trip in the world!  We tied up and headed into town to start the first Ocracoke chapter of my life (which was awesome!).

I was at Dirty Blondes when Mark came into town Wednesday night.  I had just completed the pinball game of a lifetime!  I had been working on the machine the past few days and began to figure it out.  The free game is set at 18,000,000 and my previous high score was 52,000,000.  That night I managed to get 80,000,000 in one ball and a total of 93,000,000 for the high score on the machine!  I decided to end on that note and wait for Mark to come into town.  He called and I headed out to meet him at the marina.  He had been driving for most of the day so we got him settled on the boat and decided to have a welcome aboard pint at Dirty Blondes.  I had met some really nice people throughout the week and wanted to say farewell to one particularly lovely bartender named Alma before heading out.  We talked with a nice guy named Tommy for awhile and enjoyed a free few drinks from the ever generous Frank and received some good advice from a guy that had lived on Bimini for a long time before heading back to the boat.

Armed with Mark’s truck, we took off into town Thursday morning to take care of a few loose ends (bitter ends?) and purchase some provisions.  We went to Sailorman, an awesome local consignment store, to pick up a few parts and pieces.  The cashier at the store wants to learn web design and buy a sailboat to travel around with.  Great idea!  She has just started working on the plan and I told her the details about how it has come together for me.  We left there and headed to Publix to stock up on provisions.  I have never purchased groceries for a two month span before so it was a pretty interesting experience.  Mark had some good insight and I ended up buying a lot of Progresso soups and Pasta Sides with can chicken and tuna to put in along with several other random things.  The bill came to a whooping $354 but I should have more than enough food to make it for the whole two months and more.  We unloaded everything at the boat and Mark took off to drop his car at the airport.

Jimmy gave me a good piece of advice about storing the canned goods.  He recommended labeling each can at the top so that you can identify each one without having to pull it out and it also keeps you from having a mystery dinner if the label happens to fall off.  So I spent the next few hours cleaning out the cabinets, repackaging anything in cardboard and labeling a bunch of cans!

Our plan was to leave sometime around midnight or so and head for Bimini.  We needed to leave at night so that we put ourselves in a good position to arrive at Bimini in good daylight (the guides recommend arriving between 10 am and 2 pm for the best water visibility).  We double checked that everything was ready and Mark made a few last minute repairs that were good preventative maintenance items that I had overlooked.

Right before sunset we went over to visit my new friend Albert Wall aboard his ship, Jonathan III.  I met Albert in the marina lounge area a couple of days earlier when I was looking over my Bahamas books.  He had taken a trip to the Bahamas for four months on a 40 foot sailboat when he was about my age.  He showed some good information on the charts and he invited me to see his boat later that evening.  What an amazing boat!  It is an 83 foot classic wooden motor yacht built in 1958 for the Jim Bean Distillery.  Albert has been refinishing it for the last three years and it is absolutely stunning (see the attached slideshow for pictures)!  It has lots of wonderful teak features and is truly an amazing ship.  He invited me to bring Mark aboard when he came into town.  We went over to the boat and Albert gave Mark a tour.  I talked with a really nice guy named Kai who works on the boat for Albert and is working on getting his 100 ton Captain’s License.  He was very close to being a third crew member for us but does not have his passport yet so I’ll have to give him a call before the next big trip.

We said our farewells to Albert and Kai and headed back to the boat to make our final steps to leave.  Mark ended up changing a cracked alternator belt right before we left that probably would not have survived the journey.  We double checked everything and planned to shove off in time to catch the 10:15 opening of the Las Olas Bridge.  I was fairly anxious since this would be my first offshore passage without Jimmy.

We talked through what seemed to be a simple exit from the dock and proceeded to head out.  This turned out to be one of the worst docking experiences I have ever had!  As I was backing out, the boat began to go in the opposite direction that I expected.  No big deal, we reeled ourselves back in, talked through the plan and tried again.  We attempted round two and this time committed to the exit.  All of a sudden I start drifting right back into this other boat.  I increased the throttle and could not steer out of it!  Mark was able to run back and fend us off the boat.  We pushed off and had plenty of room but as we started to pass another boat we began to drift right into them as well.  We were pressed right up against two boats and had to inch our way along.  There was very little wind and we decided there must be some sort of crazy current.  We had to fend off of three different boats and one guy on the dock had to help us before we finally made it into the channel.  With both of our hearts racing we look at each other and wonder what in the world happened.  We hailed the bridge and proceeded to head out of the inlet.  As we make our way along we are making about 4 knots with the engine just above idle!  Aha!  I made a mental note to be much more conscious of current influence before docking next time!

We made it through the canals of Ft. Lauderdale just fine and started our way out of the inlet.  I have never been a big fan of inlets.  You usually get a decent amount of surge coming through the inlet and it can be fairly difficult to keep your heading.  This proved to be the case for our exit this time.  We did not run into too many issues but it was not easiest exit I’ve ever had.  On our way out a pilot boat passed us with his monstrous tanker buddy close behind.  Even when we see it coming, this is a very scary sight at night time!

Based on the advice from our Dirty Blondes friend we set a course for 140° towards Bimini.  We needed to aim much further south than normal to account for the influence of the Gulf Stream.  We had E-SE winds of about 14-17 knots in our face and began to make very slow progress.  Mark took the first shift and we decided to rotate out every three hours.  I went to bed and woke up to find that we had made very little distance over the past three hours.  The wind and the waves slowed us down considerably and we were unable to make good progress south.  This carried on for a few shifts and we began to become frustrated as the Gulf Stream kept pushing us farther north.

There was also a strange problem with our GPS bearing that I could not explain.  The bearing on the GPS and the compass had always been fairly close.  Now they were off by nearly 60 degrees!  I began to suspect that the Magma grill that I had just mounted right next to the GPS receiver had skewed it.  The next shift I pulled out Mark’s handheld GPS and it matched exactly with the chart plotter.  Hmm…ok…well I remembered that I had two hand held compasses in my bag below the v-berth.  Not the easiest thing to get to in rolly seas but worth the effort to figure out the problem.  I pulled those out and both matched with my binnacle.  It took me a while to figure out the issue with no sleep at 4 am in morning but I concluded that everything was actually correct and that the GPS made a bearing based on what progress was being made and the hand held compasses were an actual magnetic reading.  That brought around an entirely new problem.  The GPS was basically telling me that we were making a course 60 degrees to the north of what we wanted.  I altered the course to see what progress we could make if we headed even further south.

After making only 0.9 knots in one hour we decided to change course and head north towards Grand Bahama Island.  We could either go to West End or Lucaya and ended up choosing Lucaya because it turned out that we would have to spend another night out and come into port in the morning.  Lucaya was a little bit further down than West End which would put us a little closer to our next destination.

The rest of the passage went very smoothly and was fairly uneventful other than a few large cruise ships that passed by in the night.  I had the early morning shift and was greeted by an incredible sunrise with Grand Bahama Island in sight.  The entrance into Port Lucaya consisted of one small safe water buoy and a few small day markers that were a little difficult to spot.  We started into the channel and had trouble believing our depth sounder because of the clarity of the water.  We made our way to Port Lucaya Marina to clear customs and find a slip for the night.  Jeffrey, the Dockmaster, helped us tie up the boat and pointed us in the direction of the customs office.

Clearing customs and immigration was fairly straightforward.  There were a bunch of forms to fill out and I had to promise that no rats with the plague were on board my ship.  I did not have any cash to pay the customs fee so the immigration officer gave me directions to an ATM nearby.  The marina is located in this fairly large shopping area with a stage, lots of bars, restaurants and a variety of shops.  The ATM she pointed me to was out of order so I asked someone else and they directed me to the casino across the street.  I withdrew some cash, finished up with Customs and Immigration and headed back to the boat having officially entered a new country by sail for the first time.

Mark and I went to the shower facilities to clean up and then wandered around the shopping center in search of food.  We liked the looks of a Greek restaurant called Zorba’s and placed an order for two delicious pita wraps that were very filling.  I needed to find a way to contact my parents to let them know that I had arrived safely (it was Friday and I told them if they had not heard from me by Sunday to start worrying, so I still had a little time:).  I called the operator at a pay phone and asked about the rates for calls to the US.  They were outrageous!  They wanted $25 for 5 minutes of time.  No way!  I knew Zorba’s had a wireless signal so Mark and I made our way back there for a cup of coffee.  I wrote a couple of emails letting everyone know that we made it safe and sound.

After that we went to a place called Rum Runners and had a celebratory piña colada.  After a few rounds of cold drinks we went back to the boat to make dinner.  A guy named Lance Rock came by and asked about the boat.  I gave him the tour and we ended up talking for a while.  He was thinking about buying a boat in Venezuela in January and begin sailing it around from there.  Mark and I are both expert boat shoppers so we ran him through our list of things to look for and gave him some general advice.  After Lance took off we made our way back into the square for the evening.  All of the resort crowd had started to come out and there was live music right near our boat.  We hung out in the area for awhile and ended up having a great night.

We woke up the next morning and formed our plan.  After looking at the weather forecast, we made the decision to head to the Northern Berry Islands and begin slowly making our way down to Chub Cay in time for New Year’s.  Mark’s flight out is on January 5^th so we need to make Nassau by then.  It is 56 miles from Port Lucaya to Great Stirrup Cay in the Berry Islands.  The Berry Islands are only 23 miles long so we can take our time and make short runs each day.  The trip from Chub Cay to Nassau is about 36 miles so we can do that in another long day.  The 56 mile run to Great Stirrup Cay is too far to make in the daytime so we decided to leave around 4 pm on Christmas Eve which would give us plenty of time to make the run and find a good anchorage in the daytime.

We had a little bit of time after lunch so I decided to head out and take a few pictures.  As I am snapping a few of the boat, Lance Rock stops back by and we start talking about his potential boat.  We needed to find a wireless connection to see the listing so we took off to Rum Runners where Lance treated me to a couple beers.  We talked for a while about the boat and I ended up telling him it looked good to me.  We parted ways and I pulled out my laptop to try and call my parents.  I used Google Voice and successfully called Dad’s cell phone and talked for ten minutes at a rate of 0.1 cents a minute (a lot better than $5/per!).

Mark and I met back at the boat to start the next leg.  We very carefully formed our plan for leaving the dock and had a perfect exit this time.  Thank goodness!  We needed to get fuel so we made our way to the fuel dock to fill up before leaving.  We managed to dock and leave without any problems which helped us regain some of our maneuvering confidence.  We left the channel right before sunset and set a course for Slaughter Harbor near Great Stirrup Cay.

We decided on three hour shifts again and I started us off.  We were close hauled most of the way (sailing almost into the wind) with about 14-18 knots of breeze.  The seas were pretty calm and we had steady wind most of the way.  The outside temperature was just about perfect and we had clear skies to look at the majority of the time.  Quite a few large ships passed by but we didn’t have too much trouble with any of them.  I was on shift right at midnight for the start of Christmas and decided to sing a few Christmas carols to set the tone.  Sometime early Christmas morning we decided that we needed to tack out and head east for a little bit so that we could sail up to the harbor.  We were about 15 miles out around 9 am.  We tried to make progress for several hours and ended up having to turn on the motor so that we could make the anchorage in daylight.

As we came in we could start to make out three large cruise ships right outside the harbor.  The guide books warned us that the Royal Caribbean cruise lines used this anchorage as a playground for their guests.  We weren’t too concerned but we could make out several parasails in the air a few jet skis zipping around.  The water looked amazing and the temperature was fantastic and it looked like a nice spot to spend Christmas.  We were talking through our entry plan when all of a sudden Mark’s hat flew overboard!  I jumped behind the wheel and Mark ran up on deck to grab the boat pole.  I disengaged the AutoPilot and Mark pointed out the hat in the water in normal Man Overboard fashion.  After two passes we successfully picked up our lost crew mate and resumed our course for the anchorage.

There was a lot of boat traffic around the entrance to the harbor as all three cruise ships constantly ferried people back and forth to the island and back.  We continued to make our way past all of the boats and set our course for the harbor entrance.  The chart warned of several large rock formations outside of the channel entrance but Mark provide me with headings from the chart plotter and we entered the harbor with no problems.  Mark has had quite a bit of experience anchoring so he ran me through his normal drill.  We successfully set the anchor and sat down to the end of our wonderful passage.  The harbor is absolutely beautiful!  There is an opening on one side which allows the sun to drop right into the water.  The water is crystal clear and we have about 6 feet below the keel.  There was a little bit of traffic but we quickly agreed that we were glad we did not listen to the guide books warnings.  All in all, this was one of the best passages I have made!  Definitely a much better success than the Gulf Stream crossing!

Shortly after we set the anchor I rigged up a make shift swim ladder from a spare line and hung it from a cleat.  We tied large fender to the end of a 75 foot line and I jumped into the water with a mask and snorkel to check out the bottom around the boat.  Too beautiful!  I saw Arcturus floating peacefully at anchor above the sandy bottom.  I took a few laps to inspect the prop and bottom of the boat.  What a way to spend Christmas!  I made my way up the ladder and Mark jumped in for a swim.  After we both dried off we made a traditional Christmas dinner of Turkey Noodle soup with bread that we enjoyed from the cockpit.  As the sun went down we couldn’t stop smiling at how lucky we were to have the anchorage to ourselves in such a beautiful spot.

So here we are, Mark is outside sleeping in the cockpit tonight under the stars.  I am sitting back finishing up this post listening to the quiet sounds of the boat and the anchorage.  Life is good:)  We plan on staying here for at least one more night so that we can just hang out and relax tomorrow.  There is a beach about 250 yards away that has a cabana and seems to be the hub where all the cruise people are dropped off each day.  We plan on snorkeling around for a bit tomorrow and maybe swimming over to the beach to see if we can purchase any cold drinks.  We will probably head out the next day and find a new anchorage a little further south.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you have exciting plans for New Years.  I will post this along with a slideshow as soon as we find an internet connection.  Thanks for reading! – Daniel

Here is the link for the Keys and Back Slideshow: www.sailawaywebdesign.com/keysandback.html. Sorry it has taken so long to post! I promise to post the wrap up of our adventure this next week. I am currently in Ocracoke and meeting lots of really great people. First week of officially living aboard! More to come soon!

Here is the link for the St. Augustine/Southern Florida slideshow: www.sailawaywebdesign.com/staugustine.html.