Fuel Delivery

Our fuel just came by! We'll be filling up sometime in the next couple of days.

Staniel Cay

We arrived at Staniel Cay and have taken a mooring for the night.

Black Point

Sitting in the harbor.

Black Point

Dinner at the Black Point Yacht Club.

Black Point Harbour

Black Point Settlement

This anchorage provides some shelter from the south east winds we're having today. We're going ashore to do laundry and look around.

Goodnight, Rudder Cut Cay

So Much Blue!

Goodnight, Moosha Cay

Sandbar

We walked on the sandbar today. The water is cool, and the sun is warm.

Boat Buddies

We're traveling with boat buddies for a while. We had dinner with Corky and Alex last night, and we are anchoring together in a new spot for tonight.

Moosha Cay

Moosha Cay

Our friends on Anodyne (the boat in the background) found us a beautiful spot. 

Night Moves

It's a beautiful night here. Light winds for a change, and clear skies. Heading below for a shower and bed.

Fowl Cay

We arrived at our anchorage just off Fowl Cay. This might be one of the best anchorages we've ever been to. The depth is 10 feet covering a large area, you can see the anchor on the bottom, and it's protected from every direction except west. Staniel Cay is just around the corner, the nearest place for fuel and supplies. 

Full Moon over Superyachts

Wind

The winds are kicking up from the west today, making our berth in the marina a little bumpy. The wind should veer right later today, bringing the direction around to the north, which will be better for us here. Wind has been the story on the dock this trip, with most cruisers observing that it has been much windier this year than last. Maybe El Nino, maybe just random coincidence, but it's hard to escape the feeling that we haven't been entirely welcome on the sea this year.

We expect the wind to decrease to around 10 knots or less tomorrow, and it will be blowing from the north as we head a little further south. When these days come, it's "moving day", so we'll take advantage and get into another anchorage before the wind picks up again. The next few days after that we expect east winds, which is generally a good direction for most of the anchorages here in the Exumas, as the islands provide good protection. The deep Exuma Sound lies to the east of us, and the shallow areas on the west side of the chain, the Exuma Bank, are the places that we look to anchor.

Goodnight, Highbourne Cay

Checking the Props

All is well with the props, just checked them with the GoPro camera. Zincs look good too.

 

Marina Mascot

Meet the resident parrot. He thinks he owns the place.

Nurse Shark

There's a Nurse Shark sleeping under our boat tonight.

Goodnight, Highborne Cay

All Better Now

That was quite a task! Time for a shower.

Chain Kerfuffle

So this was a first: when we went to deploy our anchor today, only about 25 feet came out and it stopped. I looked at the chain in the locker and it was wrapped up like a ball of yarn after a kitten plays with it. On our rough ride to Great Harbour, I guess it bounced around enough to tangle it. It was quite a project to get it on deck so we could untangle the mess.

Exumas

On our way to Highborne Cay in the Exumas.

Good morning, Spanish Wells

Lunch at Budda’s

East Wind

This is how stuff gets to the island.

Rain

It's a rainy day, and windy too. We're glad to be tucked in.

Directions

So many choices…

Sandbar Restaurant

We spent the day with new friends from "Second Wind", visiting the Sandbar Restaurant for lunch. 

Spanish Wells

Sensei is tucked into her slip. We're going to explore a bit of the island today. It rained last night, so we got a free wash down from Mother Nature to remove all the salt from yesterday.

Spanish Wells

The view from Wreckers in Spanish Wells.

Spanish Wells

On our way to Spanish Wells today. We made it with no problems. The winds were light with lumpy, rolly seas, but it was a decent crossing (finally!).

Next Stop

The weather looks good for a run to Spanish Wells tomorrow, so we're going to head over tomorrow…

Music Night

The cruisers make their own entertainment on Friday nights!

Laundry Cat

This is Beauty, our laundry companion for today.

Weather

One of the challenges we face is the weather. Maybe because of El Nino, or maybe just random chance, we've had a very windy season this year, making our movements more complicated. I'm looking at several weather models for the coming week, and the perplexing thing is that there isn't much agreement between the models. Monday looks good on one model, but it looks awful on one of the others. We have the same problem as a man with two watches: we never know what time it is.

So, for now, we continue watching the weather, hoping for a good window with agreement between the weather models.

Sugar Beach

We spent the day walking the beach and having lunch at a restaurant, and running the length of the island on our scooters. And, we made some new friends along the way.

Manatee

I spotted the resident manatee this morning, peacefully making a meal of grass from the bottom.

Goodnight, Great Harbour

Today’s Forecast

Sunny and pleasant today. 

She Floats!

We put the dinghy in the water today to see if we successfully fixed the hole. She floats and no leaks, so we think she's good.

Changing Weather

Weather changes rapidly around here.

To the Beach!

We somehow find ourselves at a tiki bar on the beach…

Repair Complete

Here's the completed repair. At least, I hope it's good enough for the season and we can have a pro do a better job when we get back home. I got a lot of help from Chris, a fellow cruiser, in the marina here. It's so great that everyone tries to help each other!

Patching

There is a kind boater on our dock who offered us their fiberglass repair supplies!

Yesterday’s Damage

So, when I said it wasn't pretty yesterday, I meant it was actually pretty awful. The winds and waves were quite a bit bigger than predicted and we saw seas as high as 8 feet. These big waves caused us to pitch, roll, and pound enough that we broke the dinghy davits. The remaining davit bolts then proceeded to gouge a hole in the bottom of the dinghy. Part of our recovery will be to repair the hole so that the dinghy will float again. 

Rough Ride

It wasn't pretty, but we made it safely to Great Harbour.

Island Time

We're enjoying the beginning of our Bahamas Tour. The weather here is perfect today.

All Set

We're all checked in! We're now free to roam about the country.

Check In

Here we are in our slip this morning. Notice that we're still flying the Quarantine flag. There's a power outage, so the customs officers can't use their computers to complete the process. We're hoping to finish up with the check-in sometime today…

Bahamas

We made it! Fort Pierce to Lucaya in just under 7 hours. It was "sporty" out there, but the boat handled it well.