Exumas Exodus

We were really looking forward to spending time in the Exumas, a long chain of small islands and Cays running Northwest to Southeast in the middle of the Bahamas roughly between Eleuthera and Cat Island to the East and Andros Island to the West.  It rates with the Abacos as the two most popular cruising grounds and we were excited to get there to explore the Exuma Land and Sea Park as well as some other national treasures we had discovered by chance and research.  The Exumas, by comparison are some 95 Nautical Miles longer than the Abacos with the advantage of navigable passages or cuts between the major islands allowing movement from the deep Exuma Sound for the blue ocean experience (and fishing) to the shallow leeward banks for calm anchorages and snorkeling.  We took full advantage of both.

Our first stop was Highborne Cay with the intention of obtaining fuel and groceries to carry us through the Exumas.  It's a private island with a great anchorage and we were surprised to see so many visiting sailboats and mini-mega yachts but it is indicative of how popular the Exumas has become.  I was here in 2002 on the Miami University Research Vessel Walton Smith and I remember the Exumas as being very remote, which they still are, but obviously a growing destination and for good reason.  It is incredibly beautiful here.  Highborne Cay has a lovely marina and well stocked (for the Bahamas) Grocery.  That is where we photographed the serene beach and the shark fest around the corner.  The sharks gather for feeding on fish parts discarded at the marina pier during the filleting process from the daily catch so they are probably not hungry enough to nibble on swimmers.  We saw our first one while snorkeling the anchor.  He was undoubtedly cruising by on his way to dinner.

Our next stop was Shroud Cay because of an internal dinghy route we discovered while perusing the charts.  We took our paddle boards into the coves as soon as we set anchor and went for a reconnaissance the following morning in tuk-tuk.  It was a cool way to see the turtles and mangroves and a great way to explore the shallows. This was the first stop in the National Park Boundaries and the anchorage itself was crystal clear turquoise water at about 8-10 feet in white sand. We fully appreciated a cascade of night stars with no interference from the ambient light of cities, the nearest being Nassau some 45 miles in the distance.

The following stop was our absolute favorite.  We picked up a mooring in Warderick Wells at the Headquarters of the Land and Sea Park to check in and make our donation.  The mooring field is located in a J-shaped cut through the sandy shallows and there are only 20 available so we called in our reservation early.  We had some daylight to burn when we arrived so we tied up tuk-tuk to the reef mooring and plunged right into the best snorkeling we've found so far.  All my favorite colorful reef fish were there! Parrot fish, sergeant majors, angels, trunk fish, yellow snappers, those Nemo fish and many more.  David saw a big grouper and we saw some barracudas swarming too, but the best sighting was two spotted eagle rays gliding gracefully through the current.  They were some of the largest I have ever seen!  Unfortunately, we had a technical malfunction with our Go-Pro that day or we would have had some footage for you.  The next day we hiked up to Boo Boo Hill for the view and some more blow holes and tried to snorkel the reef one more time but the current was too strong and the fish seemed to be elsewhere.  We did have fun watching a nurse shark swimming alongside our dingy off the back of the boat.

We had another big blow while we were in Warderick Wells on the mooring that night.  We make a habit as responsible sailors to dive on our anchor once it's set for the benefit of that calming visual of a dug in anchor to comfort us when the wind picks up in the middle of the night.  It's even more important on a mooring since it is not our equipment.  Fortunately we were attached to a huge cement block by substantial sized chain because the wind was howling at over 25 knots that night!  We knew we were in for a terrific sail the next day and it turned out to be one of our best yet with the added advantage of being able to sail the bank side of the island chain with its calmer waters.  We maxed out our top speed on india at 11.2 Knots of speed over ground with an easterly wind on the beam at 15 to 18 kts!  It was exhilarating! Now we are assured that india won't flip over THAT easily!

Our destination was Staniel Cay.  We found a calm anchorage along with quite a few others and stayed a couple of nights.  We wanted to make some water and do some laundry (did I mention our washing machine is tops? really works well and we are lucky to have it) and David was itching to install the first of our two new upgraded high performance alternators to give us some boosted charge for our Lithium Battery Bank when its too cloudy for our Solar!  That done we lunched at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where there are a few photos remaining from the movie set of Thunderball, the 007 Movie, and our primary reason for stopping here.  Come to think of it, that’s the second James Bond Movie location we’ve inadvertently visited in as many years.  The last one was Octopussy filmed in Udaipur, India.  The Thunderball Caves (renamed, of course) are here and we wanted to see them!  So we did, at low tide before we left.  We did get some GoPro footage but it was early morning and cloudy and still a hell of a current so it's a bit fuzzy but the caves were great and worth seeing.  This was quickly upstaged by our exit through the Crown of Thorns and Big Rock Cut to Exuma Sound the same morning.  After tight maneuvering through rapids caused by the bottleneck of current through the narrow cut and sharp ninety degree turns around some rocky shallows, we burst into some head on ocean swells at 6-8 feet through the cut!  We live for these moments!  I revel in this kind of ocean tango and when I caught a glimpse of David's expressions, I could clearly see he loves it too!  Not a surprise.

After that thrilling start we gathered our wits and decided to reef our main for the first time.  It was the right thing to do.  Ominous squalls were on the horizon and we clocked 24 kts gusts within an hour.  To our non sailors, reefing reduces the square foot area of sail exposed to wind by tucking the sail into, in our case, our lazy jack system bag, or tying it down to the boom, safely stabilizing the balance of wind to sail, so you don't get blown over.  And with the sea state of the deep Exuma Sound we had the added heel from the waves pushing the port forward hull.  Again exciting and altogether different but what we want to achieve now is our readiness for our first offshore passage coming up very soon. Our destination that evening was Rudder Cut Cay and it was a fun downwind surf through that hole of an entrance but once we rounded the corner all was suddenly calm in the lee until.... just as we were dropping anchor we were buzzed by three low flying sea planes...bright orange passing low and directly at us...next one dark blue whizzing low and rounding our bow...then bright yellow avoiding maneuvers to our stern!  Now THAT'S an arrival!

So that brings us to yesterday when we dove on the Copperfield Piano.  Let's just say it wasn’t easy to locate immediately but we knew it was there and we did find it!  It was a blast to see that in the water!  We hope you like our video.  We reluctantly pulled ourselves away from that beautiful anchorage because we had a long sail down to George Town where we need to clear customs and immigration for departure.  We could have happily stayed in the Exumas longer, we like it so much here, but it is time to go and we have a brief weather window to get ourselves down to Provenciales in the Turks and Caicos if we want to sail.  It will be our first long passage of approximately 2 to 3 days and we believe we are ready.  We won’t have internet but we do have plenty of safety gear and a well planned route.  We are hoping to check in to the New Blue Haven Marina when we get there to reward ourselves and the boat with a little luxury!  You will hear from us again then!

Highborne Cay Yacht Club

Highborne Cay

Warderick Wells Park Headquarters

Warderick Wells

More Warderick Wells, see the whale bones on the beach?

Our snorkel location between the two points

Our new friend

..is almost as long as tuk-tuk

On our way out of Warderick Wells

Staniel Cay Yacht Club

One last note* We went to the Immigration AND Customs Offices this morning.  They are in two different buildings about five minutes walk from each other.  It seems that there is no necessary paperwork to do for departure and they wouldn't allow us to return our immigration forms directly to them.  We are requested to MAIL in these forms from our next port.  Ok. Thank you very much.  Considering the state of their mail service which we experienced first hand, we would probably have better luck putting our forms in a bottle and letting the sea currents deliver them back to the Bahamas.  Just sayin'.

Sailing Eleuthera

We spent way more time than we intended in the Abaco islands, due to reasons already mentioned. But finally, we hatched an exit plan...all the repairs were up to date, and we were ready to go! We took a short sail down to Little Harbour bay right at the southern most point of the Abaco sea, and from there crossed the Northeast Providence channel - 14,000 feet deep part of the Atlantic Ocean - to arrive at the Northern most point of Eleuthera - Spanish Wells.  This was a 60 mile crossing, the weather played nice and we enjoyed 15 knot winds virtually the whole way, and almost 9 knots of speed, which is pretty quick for a sailboat.

One of the reasons we needed to visit Spanish Wells was for mail.  Just as we started this adventure, one of my credit cards was hacked and I had to call the bank to have them send me a new one.  When your home is a floating plastic box it presents some logistical issues with mail - we have a small support team back in South Carolina, namely Judy and Don, who receive and triage our snail mail so I had them send the new card to Spanish Wells post office where you can elect for 'general delivery' and have them hold it until you pitch up with ID in hand.  the card had been sent three or four weeks earlier so we felt sure it had plenty of time to arrive, and we optimistically wandered into the Spanish Wells post office, passport in hand, to pick up the card.  Well after our Fedex escapades in Marsh Harbour, our optimism was high, but expectations low.  And our expectations were duly met.  'We haven't had any mail from Nassau in weeks...', declared the sleepy postmistress 'I think they are going through some administrative changes..'

No shit.

We spent a few minutes chatting with her about world politics and whether the mail might come someday soon (since she had nothing else to do), and left.  I called Wells Fargo and ordered another card.  Maybe we'll have more luck receiving this one in the USVI.

So it was a quick overnighter in Spanish Wells, although it was a pretty little sleepy town and onward to our next port-o-call, the Glass Window.  This was one sightseeing spot we didn't want to miss, having seen some videos online of other sailing couples who visited. It was a short sail of three and a half hours, through Current Cut - so called because of the ripping current that flows through a narrow opening between two large expanses of sea.  We have researched extensively, and always take a conservative approach to our sailing, since things can go pear-shaped very quickly, so we were wary of this one having read the horror stories about boats being carried away, smashed on the rocks and so on.  But as usual, it was a non-event, and none the less a beautiful ride through.  We planned it to pass close to a slack tide where the current would be minimal, and it is narrow, but no real challenge for the driving skills of our Captain Dara.  I just took videos, tidied lines, and generally navigated.

We arrived at the Glass Window shortly after and anchored, all alone, for the night.  We swam and settled in for happy hour, meaning to wake early and explore the Queens Baths and Glass Window on land.  When we woke, we flew the drone over the whole area, since it is spectacular from the air - to see the mighty Atlantic in all its glory raging against the feeble break of Eleuthera as if trying to crash the party of the beautiful serene turquoise waters just on the other side.  It was no less impressive from the land by foot.  Here and there were little blow holes - literally holes through the coral rock right down to caves at sea level where the waves were crashing in and causing air and spray to rush up to greet us.

Back on the boat, we readied ourselves for our next sail, down to the southern tip of Eleuthera, to prepare to cross to the Exumas.  But the wind didn't cooperate today - it was lighter than predicted and from the wrong direction.  We have an app called Predict Wind, which almost all sailors use now, which is supposed to help you plan your sailing based on what the wind will be doing all over the world for the next five days.  So far, it hasn't been a great help - Dara calls it Unpredict Wind, since it is almost always wrong, at least a few days out.  We have been caught out a couple of times so far and will be a little more wary going forward.  In any case, we called it a day mid-sail and ducked into Governers Harbour about half way down.  We didn't go ashore here but spent the evening listening to the reggae party going on along the beach until the wee hours, since it was full moon (in fact it was a blue moon), and having our own party on board.

The next day the wind was good and we proceeded down to Charles bay, a good staging point for our crossing of the Exuma sound to Highborne Cay.

Eleuthera is less populated than the Abacos, but so pretty.  The quaint little towns and villages, and the clear turquoise waters make for relaxing cruising and a real feeling that one is starting to live 'off the grid'.  This part of the Bahamas was originally populated in 1648 by puritan exiles from Bermuda, and also many came after from the Carolinas.  I know even today there are some old Charleston families that have houses there, so we felt at least a little at home.

The Glass Window by drone

Our last meal in the Abacos before departing for Eleuthera. 

Spanish Wells

Another photo of booze.....

That Glass Window

That Glass Window again...

The more things change......last thoughts on the Abacos

My father was co owner of a 49 foot Columbia Sailboat in the late 1970s.   The Sloop was named the Oklahoma Crude, not because the group was invested in Big Oil, which some of them were, but because it was a bunch of crude guys from Oklahoma who owned the boat.  At least that’s what my dad used to say with a wink and a grin.  Some of our best school and summer vacations were spent on the boat and our favorite cruising grounds were the Bahamas, and the Abacos, in particular.  I can’t say that my memories are accurate from so long ago but I do recall the names of the Cays we frequented and certainly some of the stories and absurdities are indelible.  For example, I remember Green Turtle Cay because of a bakery on the island that made the best coconut pies and I remember Treasure Cay because of an incident where we ran aground on a sand bar.  We were all told to sit on the boom while our captain (who I had a crush on, naturally) released the sheet line to it’s perpendicular position to offset the keel with our weight and we were practically dipping our toes in the water waiting for high tide to set us free!

On one holiday, the airline lost our luggage.  In those days nice clothes were expected for air travel and my mother insisted that I wear a dress and panty hose for the flight so one can imagine my dismay at the thought of wearing that attire any longer than the minute we got to the boat.  I lost the nylons and refashioned the dress into a casual look until I could get some local duds and a swimsuit!  I believe that was the very same bad weather vacation we took one December which leads to my very favorite story.  It rained every day, not just regular Caribbean squalls but a complete soaking with high winds so we were stuck in Marsh Harbour at the Conch Inn Marina.  My brother and I were happy to spend our time with the captain on dingy excursions and conch seeking expeditions when the weather broke but our stepmom, a lovely but high maintenance Chinese attorney, was pretty miserable.  I think she and my dad were having a rough patch but in any case I remember that she spent a lot of time in her cabin reading and on occasion would ask me to check on my dad who had been holding court at the Marina bar all week, which at that time was called the Conch Out.  In his defense, I am sure that he had tolerated plenty of complaints about the weather, the lost luggage and anything else and felt he had nowhere else to hide.  I invariably found him in the corner of the bar animated in a joke or tall tale with an impressively large audience.  His delivery was spectacular and so was his bar tab, I imagine.  One night, his wife had lost all patience and my orders were to escort him back to the boat in time to sober up enough for dinner in town.  It wasn’t easy to drag him away so I enlisted my young brother as my heavy.  We weren’t twenty feet down the dock when dad stopped short and arranged his face into the most serious expression.  He placed his big hands on each of our shoulders and made the following announcement.  “Children, your father is drunk.  But let this be a lesson to you, I am not driving.”  Then he ambled down the dock and boarded his vessel.

There were many experiences that created those early impressions of the Bahamas for me.  For example, we used to eat turtle steak for dinner. Please don’t hate on me.  It was delicious and I was a kid and it was the seventies when it was commonly found on menus.  I know better now.  Beautiful women would sunbath topless and it was a big deal.  Gratuity was automatically added to the check at restaurants so everyone complained about the service they weren’t getting.

I have to say that the pace is still very slow in some places even by Caribbean standards and it is still quite expensive, but the general surliness of service is occasionally redeemed by such extraordinary hospitality that it seems to even itself out.  It occurs to me that I remember more fine dining experiences than what we’ve found here so far but we’ve been happy with it, mostly, and the views and atmosphere are worth paying for, certainly.  I didn’t recognize much when we visited the Conch Inn Marina last week.  Everything seemed so small when compared to my thirteen year old memory of it.  I only recognized the long narrow finger piers in the Marina itself because I pulled my stepmom out of the water once when I heard her fall in trying to get on the boat one night!

What endures is the magnificent colors of the Abaco banks and shifting sands.  I never forgot the vivid hues of greens and blues and teals and turquoise under crystal clear water and sailing here this last month has been as breathtaking as I remember.  I loved our first days here motoring in the shallows from West End to Mangrove Cay and Great Sale Cay.  It was like gliding through a swimming pool.  Then a couple of nights in Crab Cay where we found the coconuts was a nice hideout from the wind.  We loved Green Turtle Cay and our bicycle ride and enjoyed Treasure Cay too, launching our SUPs for the first time there.  Our very favorite was Great Guana Cay where they blew the conch shell every evening at sunset and the smaller No Name Cay where we played with the piggies, but that was before we discovered Hope Town where we had a chance to fly the drone and explore a lighthouse.  If I had to choose a place to hang out for a month this is definitely one of my recommended spots especially if you’ve got a sailboat!  I loved it forty years ago and I love it here now.

There is a well known quote by Jean-Batiste Alphonse Karr that I have heard said many times.  “Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose”,  or commonly translated in English, “ The more things change, the more they stay the same”.  It couldn’t be more appropriate for the Caribbean I know, have known and will now see again. Over the years, people arrive, make their mark and fade away, restaurants and business establishments change the scenery in their era, and then the greater forces of time and nature wreak havoc on us all.  I couldn’t be more grateful for all of my experiences in the Caribbean, in any era, for I, like the islands I love, am continuously transformed.

I like Pina Coladas

A day in the life...

After we decided to take on this new adventure, I spent some time daydreaming about what we would do all day, every day, as we wended our merry way half way around the world. Laying out in the sun, drinking exotic drinks, hiking deserted islands all sprang to mind.  The reality so far is a little different. Well, a lot different actually.

Quickly leapfrogging the early weeks of the refit in Fort Lauderdale when life was just completely miserable, since departing Florida for the Bahamas just four weeks ago, things have definitely improved.  We have had some angst - waiting for parts to fix unforeseen but critical repairs, but also we have enjoyed this new cruising life.  For sure the Bahamas (outside of Nassau and Freeport) is quite beautiful with some of the most incredible waters.  Many of the islands lie on the Great or Little Bahama bank, which is basically a plateaued reef making the seas anywhere from only 4 to 20 feet deep almost everywhere.  You could literally anchor wherever you are, dive to the bottom for fun, and enjoy your sundowner cocktail.  Everyone speaks English, they use the American dollar interchangeably with the Bahamian dollar, and all is good with the world.

As I write this we lie at anchor in the southernmost part of the Abacos, the north eastern island chain of the Bahamas, ready to depart into the Atlantic ocean with its abyss-like 14,000 feet depths on our way to Eleuthera. A trip of 60 miles, nine hours, and hopefully some fish to be caught en route.

But back to the subject in hand - what do we do all day? What does a typical day for Dara and David look like now?

As I said it is improving daily.  We were lucky enough to find an amazing espresso/latte machine on board when we bought the boat - a Krups!  It’s great and is our friend every morning as we prepare lattes brewed with Sexy Seven - a fantastic blended deep french roast coffee we found at Coastal Coffee Roasters in Summerville, SC. My band back in the day, Forty Mile Detour, played there often and we were hooked on the their blends, and this one in particular. We never set an alarm anymore, we wake with the movement of the ocean as other boat owners start their days and as early as the previous evening will allow :)  So after a leisurely coffee we discuss plans for the day.  Usually there is a project for us to complete - some of those in the last few days include changing out the main 12 feet long waste pipe in our bathroom due to it being completely clogged by the chemical reaction between seawater and uric acid; fitting a new VHF radio in the helm station ; changing the front main crankshaft seal on the port engine due to its dumping oil in the engine compartment; changing out the autopilot drive motor because the original one was burnt our and left us with no autopilot.

When our deliveries from the US arrived last week, it contained most of the parts needed for the jobs mentioned, so we spent time each day attending to those so were better prepared with a fully functioning boat for our further travels.  As of today, everything is working!! (But not for long I am sure...).  The last few anchorages have been in lovely places where we could use our new inflatable Stand Up Paddleboards (SUPs).  Now whilst these are wishfully named Stand Up paddleboards, so far we have only used them in sit down mode, or maybe kneeling mode for a few moments. In the sometimes choppy waters, with wakes and winds, it isn't all that easy to stand up, without falling off - a lot.  But nevertheless we are getting used to them and using them more as canoes for now.  We will paddle to a point on the shore, them tie them up and jump off and snorkel up and down the shoreline watching the reef fish going about their day.  Just yesterday we saw a lionfish - an accidental import from the pacific which is now taking over the Atlantic and Caribbean since it has no natural predator. I wished I had had my GoPro with me...a very cool looking fish.

After our daily exercise we try to visit the local town. We'll launch the dinghy (named Tuk-Tuk of course) and buzz into the local harbour which is never more than a mile or two away and find the public dinghy dock, tie up and wander about.  Today we visited the lighthouse in Hope Town, a beautiful candy stripe picture-perfect lighthouse which you can climb to the top of. We could see our boat india in the distance.  So far but so near..  After that, we popped into the local wine store to buy rum, wine and beers for our daily sundowner happy hour tradition.  Then on to the local grocery store to see what fresh produce we could acquire.  Usually some veggies, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, milk and so on.  Dara did a fantastic job of provisioning the boat in Ft Lauderdale before we left so we have our two freezers stuffed to the gills with steaks, chicken, bacon, cheese and all manner of usual suspects so we just need to find fresh goods on the way.  So far we have managed to make fresh bread, fresh pizza, homemade hummus, curries and some amazing meals!

We have internet by buying a local SIM card and unlimited data plan, so we are able to watch TV if we feel like it and have even been able to hack HBO so we can keep up with Game of Thrones!! But that's not every night by any means - tonight we sat outside and ate a beautiful steak dinner with a 1996 Barolo, and watched a lightning storm coming across the water. It doesn't get much better than that.

Tomorrow our day will be different - it will be a sail day - 60 miles due south across the Atlantic - so we will be up early preparing the boat, planning our route on the electronic charts we live by, and importantly setting up the fishing lines for Tuna or Mahi-Mahi.  We'll arrive in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, around 6pm and find our anchorage for the night, set anchor - and relax.  

The down days when you are waiting for weather, or just hanging out, are great, but the travel day when we move our whole home and belongings to a new spot on the this earth are what we live for.

india anchored outside Hope Town, such beautiful waters

I had to fabricate this tool to extract the crank pulley to change the oil seal on the port engine. It worked!!

Fitting the aforementioned oil seal

Just down the road from out Hope Town anchorage we found the Firefly resort - a great place to have dinner and drinks and it turns out it is owned by the owner of Firefly sweet tea vodka distillery on Johns Island SC!!

As soon as our appetizers appeared so did this fabulous boxer, drool and all

Our packages finally arrived!

The Big Blow

We are the red arrow

It was not our intention to spend three weeks in the Abacos, but here we are and here is our status:  We are anchored outside of Calcutta Creek (the name, I know, and I am NOT making this up!) on the northeast corner of Great Abaco. We are strategically positioned here because it is only about a mile to walk to the FedEx Office once we’ve tied our dingy up at the fuel station in the boat yard nearby which won’t have fuel until Monday...probably.  We have already walked to the FedEx office once, this very Saturday morning, because Google listed their hours from 9am til noon M-S, which we questioned, but of course they never answered their phone to confirm.  We discovered that their ACTUAL hours are 9-5, M-F, so closed until Monday.  We might have found them open Friday (yesterday) afternoon if we had known.   And so it goes.

We would have been here a week earlier but for two reasons.  Firstly, our Fedex package containing the circuit board for our new water maker that was due here two weeks ago, is still held up in customs in Nassau so there was no rush and secondly, we found ourselves in the middle of an early tropical depression that settled in over the Northern Abacos last week, a real BLOW that virtually kept us indoors for a couple of days bouncing around like drunkards!  Not that we WERE drunk, it was just hard to move around on the boat in the choppy bay.  While we still managed to be productive, we are looking forward to some fairer weather.  The part for the water maker is less of a concern now that David managed to make the circuit board we have work last week and we are happy to report that we now have the ability to desalinate sea water to 150 PPM or TDM (Parts per Million or Total Dissolved Minerals) in any case, far better than the close to 400 count water we had to buy in Green Turtle Cay which we have now diluted to a better margin, but we still WANT our circuit board out of principle and for a spare but will quite possibly leave behind.  The other good news is that after a failed calibration on our auto helm, a potential mechanical culprit was discovered in the motor which drives the hydraulic arm to our rudder bar and the new motor we ordered HAS cleared customs and we should be able to pick it up on Monday....hopefully, along with the two boxes of stuff from Miami that is waiting for us already...thankfully.

More bad news was a shocking discovery of a considerable amount of leaked oil in our port engine room which had to be cleaned up before we could investigate its origins.  It was quite a setback emotionally as we were already frustrated with weather and customs and I was genuinely worried that my next blog would be dara and david SELL India.  The liquid in the engine hold turned out to be mostly water and calmer heads prevailed the next morning when the problem became evident in a front main crank shaft seal that leaked and a manageable salt water leak from the engine’s sea water cooling system and not an actual leak in the hull.  The good news is that the boat yard where we have been staging our forays to Fedex had the seal!

In addition, the new main sail has a different pocketing system for the upper two battens which require new boxes.  We located a supplier and our new boxes are also sitting in customs in Nassau only this time our carrier is UPS.  David likes to say that I didn’t TRY to warn him about the importation fuckery in the Bahamas, I actually DID warn him, repeatedly.  The truth is, we need these bits and parts to go on.  Had we known we needed them before we left the US, we would have them.  This is our situation and since it looks like there is not much we can do about it until Monday, we plan to check out Marsh Harbour tomorrow.  I haven’t been there since the 70s and it happens to be Cinco de Mayo!  I think a nice lunch is in order along with a plethora of cocktails!

As things go, it has been a frustrating time here on S/V india, but we are managing to stay upbeat.  As soon as we can get our hands on our stuff we’ll be on our way again.  We did fly our new Genoa into the bay on Friday.  It is magnificent and we are very happy with it.  Yesterday, we found ourselves in the middle of a cavalcade of returning fishing boats in a tournament this weekend.  It was pretty spectacular with helicopters buzzing about and although it was less fun being rocked out of our bunk at 0700 this morning by their wakes (I swear they did it purposely) it is still fun to watch the boys and big toys!

New Genoa!

Most of the time the scenery is breathtaking, the Cays are fun to explore and the beer is ice cold.  David has connected an HBO feed so that we can watch the final Season of Game Of Thrones which has cheered us up immensely and we'll be able to get our stuff next week...hopefully.

Most of the time all is well.  But sometimes....it just blows.