Rock Sound Harbor is very large. It is four miles long and 2 miles wide. It gives me a feeling that we are just out in the open and not protected.

About 10:00a.m. we decided to take the dinghy and go to town. The dinghy dock was located at a place called Dingle Motors. Dingle Motors is about the size of a convenience store. They sell diesel, gas, ice and some groceries. The place also has internet, DHL service and Fax service. We had some papers to send to Florida so we used their DHL service.

We left Dingle Motors and headed for the large ocean hole that sets just outside of the town. We passed a bakery and several shops but the sigh said they were closed on Sunday and Monday.

The ocean hole is in a park. The ocean hole is surrounded by an unkept rock wall. At one time there had been a fountain and flowers built around the hole but it was all overgrown now. The water in the hole is set down about 20 feet and is surrounded by rock. It seemed to be almost perfectly round and about 450 feet across. They say the hole is very deep. We found some steps and walked down to the waters edge. I had brought some stale crackers and some corn chip crumbs to feed the fish. When we threw some of the chips into the water, the fish came to the surface by the hundreds. Denny said they looked like a cotton wick fish.

We left the ocean hole and walked to the other side of the town. We walked down the Queens Highway about a quarter of a mile to a place called The Market Place. It was like a strip mall with a grocery store, hardware store, a couple other stores, and a gas station. Denny and Kay went into the hardware store and I went into the grocery store. We bought a few things in the grocery store. They had bacon for a good price. A nice lady who owned the store gave us a ride back to the dinghy dock. Kay and Denny carried the gas and diesel jugs up to Dingle Motors to get them filled. We put our full jugs of gas and diesel and the bags of groceries in the dinghy and we headed back to the boat. It was kind of a rainy dreary day. We ate lunch and all took a nap.

Tomorrow we will leave the islands of Eleuthera and head for the Exumas. Denny and Kay checked the oil in both engines and put the way points in the Ray Marine. It was a cool evening so we had chili for supper. We wrote in our journals, read and went to bed.

Kay pulled up the anchor in Rock Sound at 6:30 a.m. We were headed for Warwick Wells to stay in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We had a NNE wind and a 42 mile motor sail ahead of us.

It was a beautiful day and we had a 15 mile an hour wind to push us along. We flew the spinnaker almost the whole day. The water is over almost a mile deep in some places. I fished off of both sides of the stern of the boat. I was hoping to catch a dolphin fish but I didn’t have much luck catching anything. Kay said I was only good at catching barracudas and I’m about to think he is right. We made almost 40 gallons of water and a bag of ice. We also charged all our computers and our camera batteries. There were times that the sails were doing such a good job that we didn’t need the engines but we kept them running to make the water and the ice.

When we got close to Warwick Wells, we called ahead for a mooring in the park. They had a place for us on mooring number 21. We went through Warwick Cut and picked up our mooring at 3:20 p.m. We made three rum and cokes and toasted the beautiful day, the beautiful water and the beautiful sail. I made Alfredo noodles with chopped tomatoes and chicken and a tossed salad for supper.

When I was in St. Louis, Tobi and Dan gave us the complete first and second season of the Sopranos on DVD for mothers day and fathers day. Tonight we watched episode one on my computer.

The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park that we are moored in has the most beautiful water I have ever seen.

We ate cereal for breakfast and readied ourselves to go to shore. Warwick Wells is where the park headquarters are located and it is also the home of Boo Boo Hill. Boo Boo Hill is a hill that is toped with a pile of mementoes, that were left there by cruising boaters.

On our boat we found a piece of wood 1x4 about 18 inches long. We wrote our names and our boat names on the board with permanent magic marker. We packed the board and ourselves into the dinghy and headed for the dinghy dock at the park headquarters. Denny let Kay and I out at the dock and took the dinghy on around to “Powerful Beach” on the other side of the park headquarters. At the beach, there was a mooring for a dinghy. I ask Denny to let me out at the dock so I wouldn’t have to walk up Boo Boo hill with sandy, wet shoes. He didn’t want to leave the dinghy at the dock because of the fluctuating tide.

We all went into the headquarters building and ask them to mark us down for tonight and tomorrow night. We met a nice lady named Michelle who did volunteer work at the headquarters. Her and her husband, Bill, were on a boat called Cool Breeze.

We then walked up Boo Boo hill to leave our memento in the pile with all the others. Michelle had given us a book that pointed out things of interest on our we walked up the hill. The book told stories about how these islands were formed many years ago and information about the different vegetation along the trail.

We placed our memento among the others at the top of the hill. Kay and Gerry Haller had left something on the hill a couple of years ago and we tried to find it. But didn’t see it. Not that is wasn’t there. There were so many different things, with peoples names and names of boats on them, that it would be easy to miss one. We spent some time reading and laughing about what others had left on the hill.

We then walked down the other side of the hill and over to Boo Boo Beach. We walked on another trail that took us back to our dinghy. We all climbed into the dinghy and headed back to the boat.

As we approached the boat a couple with a little girl came by our boat in their dinghy. Denny and Kay had talked to the family when we were in Governors Harbor. They had caught a dolphin fish on their sail to the park and wanted to know if we wanted some of it. We said yes, of course. We stayed in the dinghy and followed them back to their boat to get the fish. It was a nice size piece. More than enough to feed the three of us. We thanked them, talked a little about where we were going next and headed back to our boat. It was almost 1:00p.m. so we all had lunch.

We all wanted to do some snorkeling. We gathered our snorkeling gear and put it in the dinghy. We motored out to a reef, not far from our boat. The park has moorings to tie your dinghy to so we didn’t have to put out an anchor. There was a lot of current. I had to hold on to a line tied to the dinghy to keep from drifting to far away. I saw several fish but not much coral. Denny and Kay are strong enough swimmers to get further away from the dinghy than I did. They also said the fish were pretty but not much coral. I was proud of myself. I was able to get out of the water and back into the dinghy without any help. We all left this spot and motored over by Emerald Rock. On our way over we saw a great big nurse shark. This kind of put a damper on us getting back in the water. Kay did stick his head in and look around. He said it wasn’t much different than the last spot, so we didn’t get back in the water.

We pulled the dinghy into Emerald Beach. We thought the sign there was funny. It said “Emerald Beach no dress code”, The water and the beaches are so beautiful here. It was almost unreal.

It was getting close to 3:00p.m and we wanted to go by the headquarter building before they closed at 4:00p.m. We wanted to sigh up for the internet that cost $10.00 for 24 hours and buy a bag of ice. We pulled up to the dock and I waited in the dinghy while Kay and Denny went into the building. There were a lot of dinghies at the dock and I ask someone what was going on. A man told me 52 boats had left Georgetown that morning and all the dinghies were just people registering for the night. I think there are only 21 moorings in the park and they are offered on a first come first serve basis. I am so glad we were able to get one. There were several boats at anchorages out from the area. They hadn’t arrived in time to get a mooring.

When Denny and Kay came back to the dinghy we headed back to the boat. On our ride back we saw a big ray jump high out of the water. I made a large batch of cole slaw while we all had drinks and chips and salsa. Denny fillet the piece of fish that Steve, Odelkis, and Isabella gave to us. We ate the fish with some rice and cole slaw for supper. It was very good.

We all watched another episode of the Sopranos, typed some e-mails and went to bed.

We had trouble with our internet hook up last night so we took our computers into the headquarters building to finish sending some e-mails. We are going to leave tomorrow so we also wanted to settle up our bill. The bill was $60.00. Three days of mooring for $15.00 a night, one bag of ice for $5.00 and $10.00 for the internet. I also bought a hat for $20.00. I wanted a hat from the Exumas and this seemed like a good place to leave my money. Michelle was still in the office when we checked out. She lives on a boat named “Cool Breeze” with her husband Bill. Michelle was filling in for her friend named Judy O Estep, who normally runs the park headquarters. Judy and her husband and mother live in the house next to the headquarters building. They came here four years ago to do some volunteer work and stayed.

While we were on the porch of the headquarters building, we had a nice visit with Steve, Odelkis, and Isabella their 20 month old daughter. Their boats name is “Seven Bridges”. We thanked them again for the fish they gave us yesterday and talked more about where we have been and where we are going. They are going to George Town also. Odelkis is from Cuba and Steve is from the states originally. They have a house in the Dominican Republic.

On the radio that morning we heard that there was going to be a Conk Festival at Little Farmers Cay on Saturday. We also heard that there will be a Cinco De Mayo party at Staniel Cay tomorrow night. Sounds like our social calendar is set up for the next couple of days.

We left the headquarters building with our computers and my new hat and we headed back to the boat. We packed a small bag with some fruit, nuts and some water. We all climbed into the dinghy and headed for a trail off of Beryl’s Beach. This beach is also on the island of Warwick Wells. We walked along Beryl’s Wall and along Anita’s trail to the Davis Plantation Ruins (1780). The Davis family came to this island as Loyalist and tried to farm and raise animals. Beryl’s wall is a rock wall they built as a fence to keep the animals away from the houses. At least this is what we were told. There are a lot of rocks on this island so the ruins were half torn down rock houses. They named the trails here after the first volunteers who built the trails.

We walked back to Beryl’s Beach. Kay stayed at the beach and cooled down in the water while Denny and I took Peggy’s trail to the Loyalist Beach. One of these beaches is just as beautiful as the next. We walked the same trail back to the beach where we left Kay.

We all climbed into the dinghy and went to Emerald Beach where we were the day before. We all wanted our picture beside the no dress code sign. While we were taking pictures, there was a curly tail lizard hanging around like he expected us to feed him something. I went to the dinghy and got a couple pieces of walnut that I had in my snack bag and my water bottle. I fed him the nuts and pored some of the water on a rock for him to drink. That lizard would have eaten out of my hand if I had let him.

We all climbed back in the dinghy and headed back to the boat. It was almost 3:30p.m. Denny had a beer and Kay and I had a Coke. Denny and I laid on the front trampoline and took a nap. Kay found happiness in the cockpit watching the other boats with the binoculars.

We grilled pork chops and cooked some baked potatoes in the microwave. I made a spinach salad with the last of the spinach we bought in Rock Sound. We were all in bed by 9:30p.m.

Happy Cinco-De-Mayo

At 8:10a.m. Kay let go of the mooring in this beautiful park. We had two nice sunny days at this place and we wished we could stay longer. That has been our problem on this trip. We really liked the places we have been, so we stayed an extra day or two. We should have been further south by now. It is easy to see how someone could come back to the Bahamas year after year and still not see it all. There are so many islands and anchorages we did not get to visit.

On our motor sail to Staniel Cay, we made ice and water and charged the computers. Denny flew the spinnaker. Kay put the anchor down at Staniel Cay at 1:10 p.m. This is where the Thunderball Grotto is located. It is a sky lit underwater cave, where they filmed scenes for some movies like Splash and the James Bond movie “Thunderball” (1964).

We ate lunch and gathered our snorkeling gear to visit the Thunderball Grotto. We were so excited about going to see this natural sight that we forgot to consider the tide. The tide was coming in and when we reached the outside of the cave in our dinghy, Kay and I weren’t so sure we wanted to swim in. The entrance was very narrow and it had jagged rocks sticking out that could do a number on your head. Denny said he wanted to go in. Kay and I said we would wait in the dinghy and come back when the tide was lower. We watched Denny go in. He came out and he said we had to come in and see how beautiful it was and see all the fish. After seeing Denny come and go, we decided to try it. We got out of the dinghy and swam into the cave, being very careful not to hit our head on the low hanging rocks at the entrance. It was beautiful inside and there were lots of colored fish to see. I think the fish had been fed by people before. They were swimming up to us instead of away from us. Kay and I were glad we didn’t stay in the dinghy and miss this. The tide was still coming in and pushing me to the back wall of the Grotto. Denny had to help pull me out of the cave. I’m not a strong enough swimmer to swim against the tide. Kay and Denny had no trouble.

We all climbed back into the dinghy and headed for the boat. I went inside to take a shower while Denny and Kay continued to snorkel around the boat. They wanted to check on the anchor. They eventually got out of the water and fixed themselves a rum and coke. They showered and we all dressed to go into the Cinco de Mayo happy hour party that they were having at the Staniel Yacht Club.

We tied up the dinghy on the yacht club dinghy dock and walked toward the club. We saw Michelle and Bill standing outside the doors enjoying their drinks. We chatted with them a while and then walked inside to get our drinks. It was a fun party. Not real Mexican, only a few decorations. They did run specials on their Mexican beer, Margaritas, and Sangria. They had free salsa and chips. I bought an insulated glass that said Staniel Yacht Club. If you bought the glass they gave you the drink free.

We went back outside. Some fishermen were cleaning some Maui Maui on the dock. There were several large rays and a large nurse shark in the water under the dock. Kay took pictures of them. The water is so clear here. Our view of the rays and the shark was so clear it was as if we were snorkeling with them. We talked to several people at the party, finished our drinks, paid our bill (6 beers & 1 large margarita $23.00 + $5.00 tip= $28.00). The Yacht Club was serving a Mexican buffet dinner for $18.00 each, but we decided to just go back to the boat and eat. I had enough left over chili in the refrigerator for three bowls. I also had some cheese to grate on top.

It was about 8:00 p.m. when we arrived back at our boat. I heated the chili and grated the cheese. Kay transferred the camera pictures to his computer. After we ate our chili, Kay gave us a slide show of all the pictures we took that day. I did the dishes and we went to bed.

I woke up about 8:00a.m. Kay was watching other boats with the binoculars and Denny was typing on the computer. Denny said he would sure like some scrambled eggs. It sounded good to me too. We had bought both bacon and eggs in Rock Sound so it was possible. I even had potatoes to fry. I cooked the bacon, fried the potatoes in the grease, and scrambled some eggs. Kay and Denny were very happy to get all of that greasy food instead of the usual cereal.

Kay pulled up the anchor at Staniel Cay at 10:10 a.m. We were headed for Little Farmers Cay. I would have liked to have stayed another day in Staniel Cay, just to walk around and see what else was on the island. We had heard that there was a Conk Festival at Little Farmers Cay today and we didn’t want to miss it.

The wind was blowing SSE at 7 or 8 knots. It was a beautiful sunny day in the mid 80’s. We motored, made ice and charged our computer and camera batteries.

Kay put the anchor down at Little Farmers Cay at 2:05p.m. When Kay leaves us in June or July, I will have to steer the boat and Denny will do the anchoring. Today I practiced my steering. I was at the helm and Denny coached. We have an engine on both sides of the boat. Someone once told me that it was like driving a flexible flyer sled. That’s kind of the idea but I never drove my sled in reverse and the wind never pushed my sled side ways. Plus, the currant never effected my sled. So, the sled theory is only good if you take your Catamaran boat down a snowy hill in little or no wind. I’m just going to have to practice.

We all changed into our “go to town cloths” and dinghied into Little Farmers Cay to attend the Conk Festival. We could hear the music from the boat. The water is rally clear here. When we arrived at the dock, we could see lots of rays and nurse sharks milling around the dock. I think these fish hang out around docks where people clean fish and throw rejected fish parts in the water. We dropped off two bags of garbage in a can next to the dock. They charge $2.00 a bag to leave your garbage on the island. They had a little box to drop the money in.

We walked toward the music to a bar/restaurant called

Ocean Cabin. Terri Bain is the owner and bar tender of the Ocean Cabin. His mother had started the restaurant years ago and now Terri runs the place. We also met another nice fellow who worked at the bar. His mane was Tyrone Brown.

Many years ago a freed slave named Chrisanna came to this island from Barraterre and she settled here. She had two sons. One named Michael Nixon and one named Adam Brown. The sons bought the island from the English Crown and willed it to their descendents as generation property. Michael had thirteen children and Adam had five. Most of the 55 residents on the island are descendents from these two men.

Denny had cracked conk and some conk fritters. Kay and I had a piece of Conk pizza and I had a conk salad. Kalik Gold was the drink of the day for our group ($3.00 a bottle). We saw Bill and Michelle from “Cool Breeze” and Steve and his family from “Seven Bridges”. We also met a few new people.

They had a book exchange in the Bar/restaurant so Kay took me back to the boat to pick up a couple books I had already read to exchange for different ones.

We went back to the boat around 8:00 p.m. We heated up some left overs, talked about our day, did the dishes and went to bed.

Kay pulled up the anchor at Little Farmers Cay at 7:38a.m. I drove the boat and Denny coached me on which way to turn the boat and how to follow Kay’s had signals. The wind was SSE at 15 knots on our noise. We motored the entire day. We made ice and enough water to fill the water tanks and some extra jugs. We also charged all the batteries for the cameras and the computers.

Kay put the anchor down in Elizabeth Harbor just off of Stocking Island next to Monument Beach at 4:07 p.m. Elizabeth Harbor is very large. Four to five hundred boats can be anchored in this harbor at one time. We made some rum and cokes with the ice we had made and took showers with the hot water the engines had heated. We had salmon patties with canned asparagus, canned carrots and canned fruit cocktail for supper. For desert, we are still eating the Easter candy that I brought back from the states. Kay gave us a slide show on his computer. He had pictures of the Conk Festival yesterday and our trip today. Denny and I typed in our journals until our batteries went dead and then we went to bed.

We hung around the boat most of the morning. I defrosted the refrigerator in preparation to stock up on food while we are in George Town. Kay pulled up the anchor while I steered and Denny coached. We moved the boat about one mile to Kidds Cove in Elizabeth Harbor. This was a little closer to George Town on Great Exuma Island.

After lunch we were lowering the dinghy into the water so we could go into Lake Victoria and tie up to the dinghy dock next to the Exuma Market. I happened to hear on the VHF radio that they were not letting dinghies into Lake Victoria because they were going to destroy the bridge over the passage between Kidds Cove and the lake. So, we motored our dinghy into the beach next to the Exuma Docking Service. Kay and Denny let me out on the dock next to the beach so I wouldn’t have to wade in the water. That was very considerate of them.

When we went into town we realized we could still walk across the bridge. They did have it blocked so a cars could not drive across. It is only a one lane bridge about 25 feet long. There were red lines drawn on the bridge road and there was an asphalt saw and a generator setting there ready to go. I guess we expected the bridge to be dynamited at noon. I forgot things don’t happen as quickly in the Bahamas as they do in the U.S.

We walked to the straw market and to the Peace and Plenty store. We split up and Kay went to check out the Laundromat and the Internet stores. Denny and I stopped at a bar to watch four men play dominos on the bar porch. They were playing for money. They played very quickly and slammed the dominoes on the table when they put then down. Very different than the way I learned to play as a child. Denny and I also bought a couple pieces of sugar cane to chew on, at a roadside vegetable stand. We had met up with Kay by now and we went into a general store and bought some thumb tacks and a filet knife. We wanted the thumb tacks for our boat “business” cards. We often go into places where we could hang the cards on the walls but we didn’t have anything to stick them up with. The filet knife is for the eatable fish I’m going to catch someday.

We walked on the Exuma Market and bought a few groceries. They were out of fresh milk but they did have some boxes of long life skim milk for a good price. We bought 8 boxes. The man in the store said they should get their shipment of fresh mild tomorrow. We bought a bag of ice and went on to the dinghy. On our ride back to the boat we saw Steve from Seven Bridges. He was making trips back and forth to his boat in his dinghy to fill jugs of water. The water here is free if you fill up your own jugs.

It was about 3:45p.m. when we arrived back at the boat. We unloaded the groceries and the put the ice in the cooler. The refrigerator was all defrosted so I wipe it out. I put all the things back in and we turned it on. I am sure it will run more efficiently now. We had some drinks with the ice we bought in town. Denny and I played a couple games of dominos but we didn’t play for money and we didn’t slam the dominos on the table like the men in town. We had sloppy joes and cole slaw for supper. Nuts and M&M’s for desert. We all went to bed early.

May 9, 2006 Tuesday

Denny and Kay changed the oil in both engines today. The engines are under our beds. We had taken the bedding off of the beds to go to the Laundromat. This made it a good time to get to the engines. Denny has this neat gadget that just sucks the old oil right out. They hardly make any mess when they change it.

After lunch we placed all of our dirty laundry into the dinghy and headed for town. We climbed out at the dock of the Exuma Docking Service. It is like a marina but they don’t call it a marina. (go figure). They had lots of washers and dryers at the Ezuma Docking Service so we filled up seven washers. This laundry wasn’t very nice. The washers were only $1.50 each but there was water about an inch deep on the floor and there wasn’t a chair to set in.

While I was watching the washers, Kay and Denny went off to the electronics store to see if they could find a cable for our VHF radio. We can hear and transmit but the people we are talking to must be really close. Denny thinks the cable may be corroded. When Kay and Denny came back, I was loading one dryer. That was the only dryer that wasn’t in use. Kay and I loaded up all of the other wet cloths and carried them to another laundry called the Corner Laundromat. We sent Denny back to the boat with a load of nylon and easy to dry things to hang on the lines in the cockpit.

Kay and I filled four dryers at $4.00 each. This Laundromat was more expensive but it was much nicer. Kay stayed with those cloths while I walked back to the Docking Service Laundry to check on the one load I had left there. When they were all dry and folded, I walked back to see how Kay was doing. The family from the boat Seven Bridges were in the Corner Laundromat also. Kay and I visited with them while we waited on our cloths to dry. We invited them over to our boat tonight to show us some of the charts he has for going further south.

When our cloths were dry, we folded them and bagged them and headed for the dinghy. On our walk, we ran into Denny coming our way. Denny had gone back to the boat to hang the cloths and to get the diesel cans to have them filled. Denny and Kay stopped at a liquor store to buy two Kalik beers. They put each beer in a little brown paper bag so they could drink on the street. We all walked to the dinghy and headed for the boat.

We put all of our clean laundry away, made some rum and cokes and just took it easy for a while. I made Ruben sandwiches for supper. I didn’t have any rye bread so I made the French (German) toast with eggs, milk, salt, pepper and some dill weed. I heated a can of corned beef and a can of sauerkraut. I topped it with swiss cheese and Thousand Island salad dressing. I served the sandwiches open faced with applesauce on the side.

At 7:00p.m., Steve, Odelkis, and Isabela came to our boat in their dinghy. I put out some mixed nuts with some M&M’s and some animal crackers for Isabela. However, she seemed to prefer the M&M’s instead of the animal crackers. Steve brought me a new lure to help me catch fish. Maybe I will have better luck catching a Dolphin Fish with this one. Denny, Kay and Steve spent the next 45 minutes or so, going over charts and books that Steve brought with him. Odelkis and I spent our time entertaining Isabela. Our boat is not child proofed.

After they left, Kay went to bed. Denny and I played a couple games of dominoes and a game of checkers. He always wins when we play checkers. I just can’t think ahead as many moves as he can.

Today, we packed up our computers and went into town. We went ahead and took our dinghy under the bridge into Victoria Lake. The opening under the bridge is only about 20 feet wide. They were suppose to take down the bridge at noon on Monday but they are still working on removing the surface. Things down here happen on island time.

Before we went to the Bal sound electronic/internet store, we went to the Sandpiper Shop to buy a couple of charts that Denny wanted. He bought one of the Turks and Caicos and one of the Dominican Republic. Kay, Denny and Steve had talked about these charts last night. The Sandpiper Shop was a cute store. They had lots of pretty jewelry and vacation cloths for me to look at while Denny and Kay looked over the charts.

When we left the shop we saw Steve and Isabela in the park. We stopped to talk to them a while. Odelkis had gone to get he nails done.

We walked on to the Bal sound electronic/internet store where we could get on line for $3.00 a day. We read and wrote some e-mail and read some news. They closed the place at 1:00p.m. so they could go to lunch. We walked down the street to the Shop-Rite and bought a few groceries.

We then went back to a store next to Bal sound electronics and bought two cases of diet coke. We carried all of these groceries, along with our computers, back to the dinghy dock behind the Exuma Market. We put everything into the dinghy. Kay and Denny sent me to the garbage with the cardboard from the cases of coke. They said they would meet me at the gas dock. They wanted to fill up the gas tank in the dinghy. After some confusion as to which gas dock they went to, we finally met up and headed for the boat.

We ate lunch and Denny went through some pictures to pick out some to send to the web site. We put our computers back in the dinghy and headed back to the internet store to send the pictures. We tried but the connection wasn’t strong enough to send the pictures. We hung around the store till 5:00p.m. to use their electric to charge our computers and to set in their air conditioning.

We went back to the boat and had supper. Hamburgers, fried potatoes and three bean salad.

Denny and I took our computers back to town again this morning. Kay waited on the boat. Denny wanted to try to find a place with a faster connection to send our pictures to the web site. When we left the boat in the dinghy, we saw several dolphins playing around our boat.

We were still able to get under the bridge so we tied up to the dinghy dock at the Exuma Market. We walked down to the Two Turtles Inn. We had heard that they had an internet connection. The place did have a computer with a place to insert your credit card to send and receive e-mail. The lady at the front desk didn’t know much about the computer so we decided to walk back to Bal Sound Electronics and see if we had any answers to the mail we sent yesterday. We could just pay $3.00 and both of us could check our mail on the same computer and then we could use their electric and air conditioning to type in our journals.

We went back to the boat and had lunch. Kay pulled up the anchor from Kidds Cove in Elizabeth Harbor. We moved the boat about a mile to an anchorage close to the Chat and Chill bar on Stocking Island. This is still in Elizabeth Harbor. We dinghied into the beach and walked up to the Bar. The Chat and Chill is a rustic open wooden building right on the beach. It is a beautiful beach with sand volleyball nets set up and a conk salad stand about one block from the bar. In the Chat and Chill we met a young couple named Ali and Laura Lee. They weren’t really a couple per say, Ali was on a boat by himself and Laura Lee was on a boat with her mother. They did plan to leave together on his boat and do some sailing together for a while. We had spoken to Ali in other harbors. As we drank the afternoon away, we would occasionally have to go pull our dinghy further up on the beach so the tide wouldn’t wash it away. There were other patrons of the bar doing the same thing.

About 4:30p.m., we headed back to the boat. We grilled Ribs and made fried potatoes and a salad for supper. After we ate, Kay took a nap. They were really generous with the rum they served him at the Chat and Chill. He woke up in a little while and we all took showers and took the dinghy into the St. Francis Resort on Stocking Island. We had a couple of drinks at the bar and walked down a lighted concrete path to the ocean side of the island. The moon was almost full and the beach was beautiful. We left the bar a little after 9:00p.m. and went back to the boat. Kay gave us a slide show of all the pictures we had taken that day and we all went to bed.

I was awakened by the sound of the engines. Kay pulled up the anchor at 6:22 a.m. We had a 55 mile motor sail ahead of us to Rum Cay. I made eggs, bacon and English muffins for breakfast.

We motor sailed. We made water most of the day. I tried to fish. Something big took my new lure that Steve from “Seven Bridges” had given me. My line is hooked to a bungee cord to set the hook. What ever it was, it stretched the bungee cord way out, moved it side ways then, pop, it broke the line. My new lure was gone, just like that. I was not on deck when this happened but Kay and Denny told me about it. I was told not to put a steel leader on my lure because the dolphin fish can see it. I am not having much luck with or without the leader. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong. I may need heavier line. The water I am fishing in is over a mile deep.

Kay put our anchor down at 4:20p.m. just WNW of Nelson Harbor. We put our dinghy in and headed for Kay’s bar/restaurant on Rum Cay. We tied our dinghy up to the government dock and found a challenging place to climb up onto the dock near the fish cleaning area. We walked to Kay’s bar, where Kay and Denny had a beer (Kalik $3.00 each). The bar had a sand floor but the restaurant side was tile. The prime minister had visited the island today. He had came there to break ground for a new resort that was going to be built on the island. There were a lot of local people in the bar. They had stopped in to have a drink after attending the ceremony.

By 6:00p.m. we were back at the boat and I started fixing supper. A couple named Scott and Kathy from the boat “Werus” came to our boat in their dinghy. “Werus” is a 37 foot Heritage (designed by Charlie Morgan for charter fleets). Scott has lived on his boat for five years but Kathy is only visiting and she got on board in Staniel Cay. They bought a couple books for us to look at and they said they would come by at noon tomorrow and pick them up.

We ate a late supper. We had Mexican French toast. We all took showers, and went to bed.

We hung out on the boat all morning. I love these kind of mornings. The sun is up, temperature in the low 80’s, a cool breeze, beautiful blue water all around the boat and no place to hurry off to.

Scott from “Werus” showed up in his dinghy at noon. He came aboard and shared some weather faxes he had with Denny and Kay. If the weather report holds, we both plan to leave tomorrow and head for Mayaguana Island. It is a 139.4 , 24 hour trip. Scott was going to get some fuel here but the fuel dock closed at noon. We didn’t realize they were going to do that. The fuel dock does not open again till Monday morning. Scott is going to try to get some in Mayaguana.

We ate lunch, put on our go to town cloths and climbed into the dinghy. Today we took the dinghy into the beach just to the right of the government dock. We walked up to the Last Chance Grocery Store and bought a jar of spaghetti sauce.

We left the Last Chance Grocery Store and walked down the street to Toby’s Bar. Scott and Kathy also showed up. Toby’s Bar was an enclosed building about 25’x25’. It had no air conditioning. He did have two big freezers that he kept his beer in. He also had one table and chairs and a set of dominos. Kay, Denny, and Scott played while Kathy and I discussed life on a boat. About 4:00p.m. we headed back toward are dinghy.

When we arrived back at out boat, we changed into our bathing suits and picked up our snorkeling gear. We climbed back into the dinghy and headed for some coral heads that were sticking out of the water. We weren’t even in the water yet and we saw a large shark swim by the dinghy. We had our lookie bucket with us so we checked out different spots to see if the sights were worth getting in the water with the shark. It all looked like dead coral and hardly any fish. We did see a large turtle.

We came into the Marina to buy some ice. Scott and Kathy were there with their computers. Scott let us check our e-mail on his computer. Our daughter Tobi and our son in law Dan are buying a house. It has been exciting reading about their adventure with selling their existing home and buying a different one. Scott showed Denny and Kay a weather site that he uses on his computer.

We took our ice and headed back to the boat. Kay and Denny made rum and cokes while I made spaghetti and a salad for dinner. Kay gave us a slide show on his computer. I read and went to bed. I finished a book: Birthright by Nora Roberts, good mystery

Happy Mothers Day.

Kay pulled up the anchor at 8:00a.m and we left Rum Cay and the Exumas. We are headed for Mayaguana Island which is still in the Bahamas. The boat “Werus” is also leaving Rum Cay with us. It is a beautiful day. We motor sailed. We were clipping along at over 6 knots most of the day. The water was flat and we had 10 to 15 knot SE breeze. I fished. This area we are sailing in is suppose to be some of the best water in the world to fish in. Maybe for people who know what they are doing. I tried it with the steal leaders and without. I ended up loosing both of my lures to the fish. One line broke right at the bungee cord. I need stronger line for this size of fish. We made enough water to fill our water tank and all our drinking water jugs. We made ice and fully charged our computers.

We had chips and salsa around 5:00 p.m. and then supper around 7:30p.m. We had sloppy joes. I am trying to use up the buns we bought in George Town before they go bad. We also had a salad.

We sailed into the night. About 11:30p.m., “Werus” left us to go anchor off a little uninhabited island called West Palm Cay. The wind was good so we kept on moving. It got a little rougher in the night but the wind was still blowing in a good direction. We slowed down some in the night, we wanted to be sure it was daylight when we arrived at Mayaguana Island.

I stayed up keeping Denny company till a little after midnight. When Kay came up to relieve Denny, Denny curled up in the corner of the cock pit in case Kay needed him. I went down to my bed planning to only sleep a while. I didn’t get up till we were anchoring in Mayaguana. I guess they didn’t need me bad enough to wake me.

We anchored in Abrahams Bay off of Mayaguana Island at 10:46 a.m. Abrahams Bay is surrounded by a reef. I made bacon, eggs and English muffins for breakfast. Kay and Denny took showers and went to bed. I was wide awake after getting a good nights sleep. I read and made a big batch of cole slaw.

I was fixing supper when “Werus” pulled into the Bay and anchored close to us. They had left their anchorage this morning and sailed all day. They said the water was a lot rougher today than it was yesterday and the wind was on their noise. I think Kay and Denny were glad we sailed through the night. “Werus” did catch two dolphin fish. Scott said he was using a lure that looked like a pink squid. I must get one of those when we get to a sporting goods/hardware store.

We had hamburgers, baked beans and cole slaw for supper. I used the last of the buns. I took a shower and we all went to bed early.

It was a laid back day on the boat. Everyone napped and read. We watched a couple new boats come into Abrahams Bay and anchor. There are six boats here now. We are waiting on good weather report so we can head further south.

There are a couple towns on Mayaguana Island. However, the closest one to Abrahams Bay is Abrahams Bay Settlement and it is about five mile away from where we are anchored.

We started the engines and made ice and hot water for showers. We had some coke and rum in the afternoon. I made leftover stew for supper. We all took showers and went to bed.

About 10:30 a.m., Scott came over to our boat to talk about getting fuel. He needs it and we have two full cans on our boat. His boat, “Werus”, holds 40 gallons of diesel and 120 gallons of water. Our boat holds 70 gallons of diesel and 70 gallons of water. Scotts boat burns about .7 gallons per hour and our boat burns about .6 gallons per hour. He was going to get fuel in Rum Cay but the gas dock closed at noon on Saturday and wouldn’t be open again till Monday morning. He had enough fuel to get him to Mayaguana where we are now but he will have to find fuel here to get to Provo. We have enough to get us to Provo in the Turks and Caicos.

Scott wanted to try to get fuel here and we all wanted to check out of the Bahama Islands. He suggested we get closer to the Abrahams Bay Settlement in his boat.

We tied our dinghy behind “Werus” and we inched our way through the coral heads toward Abrhams Bay Settlement. Denny and Kay stayed on the bow to watch for coral heads in the water while Scott steered. We came as close as we could to the settlement (¾ mile) and anchored. Kay, Denny, and I climbed off of “Werus” and into our dinghy. Kathy and Scott climbed into their dinghy with the two fuel cans. We all headed for Abrahams Bay.

The government dock at the Settlement is all concrete so we pulled into the beach next to our dock. We walked a short way to the customs building. Kay met a guy named Sculley who was fly fishing off the dock. Kay seems interested in fly fishing so he chatted with Scully for a while.

When we were at the customs building we met another couple who were just arriving in the harbor when we were moving closer to the settlement. They followed us through the coral heads and up to customs. Their boats name was “Exit Only”. They were clearing into the Bahamas. The boat was a Privilege 39. A couple named Dave and Donna had lived on their boat for 15 years. Their son David was with them. They were within a few miles of circumnavigating the world. They were very interesting people. They told us we should not miss Carnival in Trinidad.

Scott was making arrangements to get a couple cans of Diesel. The fuel was located on the other side of the island. The pumps were broken and wouldn’t be fixed till 5:00 p.m. We decided that would be island time and would be late if ever. We caught a ride in a pick up truck with a lady who was a sister of a lady in the customs office. She took us to a bar that was about a mile and a half from the customs building. The bar was called “Club Thunderstorm”. We stayed at the bar till almost 4:00p.m. The bar was air conditioned

Scott talked to some other people and they knew a lady who had bought a lot of diesel for a construction project and she might sell us a couple of cans. Kay, Denny and Scott played dominos with a couple of people and we watched a DJ dance with himself and play music. He had some interesting moves.

Scott was able to get his gas from the lady who had the extra diesel so we didn’t have to wait on them to repair the pumps on the other side of the island.

We caught a ride back to our dinghies with a guy named Smokie. Smokie had a pick up truck, He stopped at a place called “Reggie’s grocery store” on the way so we could pick up some eggs and bread.

I found some really nice conk shells in a pile close to the government dock. Smokie said I could have all I wanted. He kind of chuckled because the shells are all over the place down here and I am sure it was hard for him to understand why I would want those stinking shells. This was also not a pleasant thought for Kay or Denny either. Until you get the shells really cleaned out they smell awful. Denny and Kay have trouble seeing beyond the odor and realizing the shells true beauty. I did manage to get a few nice shells before they said that’s enough.

Scott and Kathy climbed into their dinghy and we climbed into ours and we headed back to Scott’s boat “Werus”. We tied our dinghies behind Scott’s boat, climbed a board and motored back through the coral heads to where Dazzler was anchored. We thanked Scott and Kathy for the ride and we took our dinghy back to our boat.

Denny went over to talk to the people on “Exit Only”. We thought they may need charts for the Bahamas since they were just coming in. We were looking for charts for waters further south. They didn’t have any paper charts they wanted to get part with. Denny was able to trade them our charts for $80.00 and a Cruising guide to the Leeward Islands.

When Scott came over to our boat, this morning, he gave us a large piece of Dolphin fish that he had caught on our sail to this bay. It was a large piece and I cooked it all. We had rice, cole slaw and fish for supper. There was enough fish left over to make fish salad sandwitches for lunch tomorrow.

We all took showers. Denny and I typed in our journals and we went to bed.

Kay pulled up the anchor at 7:24 a.m. We are leaving the Bahamas today. We are headed for the Turks and Caicos.

We landed in the in Bimini on March 1, 2006 . We were in the Bahamas for 79 days. (not counting my 7 days when I went back to St. Louis)

We sailed through a couple squalls that weren’t predicted. We made water and charged our computers. Since the fish had taken all three of my lures, Kay and I decided to make our own. I did have a rubber fish with a hook on it so Kay dressed it up with some colored streamers . I used a hook with a steel leader. I cut the ends off the fingers of a surgical glove and added a few streamers from a colored bread bag. I taped the glove on the leader with the hook inside. I used white duct tape and painted an eye on it with a permanent black magic marker. We didn’t catch anything but the fish didn’t take our lures either. Kay said maybe the fish don’t bite on a rainy day.

We put our anchor down at 4:25 p.m. in West Caicos Marina. The place has been under construction since 2002. They haven’t built any facilities yet. We followed Werus into the marina. The squalls had churned up the water in the ocean. The waters were much calmer inside the marina harbor.

Kathy and Scott came over to our boat to eat. They bought over some Stroganoff hamburger helper and some hamburger. I had told them that if they brought it over, I would cook it. We had cheese, summer sausage, and crackers for appetizers. We had nuts, cookies, and chocolate candy for desert. We went to bed about 10:00 p.m.

Kay pulled up the anchor ant 9:22 a.m. and we headed for Sapodilla Bay. We wanted to check into the Turks an Caico Islands at the customs office there. We put our anchor down at 11:50 a.m. in Sapodilla Bay next to the island of Providenciales.

Only the skippers have to show up at the customs and immagration office in this country so Kay took Denny to shore in the dinghy. There wasn’t a dock here so they had to take the dinghy into the beach. It was a nice beach like they all are down here. Scott took his dinghy in to the beach also and Kay waited and watched the dinghies till Scott and Denny cleared us into the Turks and Caicos. The customs office ran out of forms while Scott and Denny were checking in so this took longer than we had planned.

We pulled up the anchor in Sapodilla Bay about 4:10p.m. We dropped anchor again at 6:10 p.m. just outside of Caicos Marine and Shipyard which is on the island of Providenciales (aka Provo).

We had pork chops for supper. It is really hot and muggy now. A couple of Squalls moved through in the night and there was a lot of lightning. We were all up till after midnight watching our position and the position of the two other boats anchored around us. One of the boats is “Werus” and the other one is called “Osiris”. We spoke to “Osiris” on the VHF during the storm and he seems very knowledgeable about the weather.

I finished another book: No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark kind of a play on the Lizzie Borden axe murder.

The water was really ruff this morning. Denny was hauling disel to our boat from the shipyard. He was using our dinghy and our two yellow disel jugs to haul the fuel in. The water was so ruff that it was difficult to transfer the jugs from the dinghy onto the boat. He was afraid to take “Dazzler” into the shipyard because the intrance was so narrow and the water was so ruff.

On one of his trips back and forth from the shipyard, I climbed into the dinghy with my go to town cloths on. I rode into the marina shipyard with the intention of getting a ride into town with Scott and Kathy. They had rented a car (Suzki Samari) for the day. They were going to do some grocery shopping and had offered us a ride if we wanted. Kay and Denny stayed behind to finish the fueling on the boat.

We bought $160.00 worth of fuel. We paid cash. They have a 4.5% charge here if you put something on a credit card.

The first few miles to town were ruff rock road. When we finally turned onto a hard road it resembled Manchester road in St. Louis or the Tamiami Trail in Ft. Meyers Fl. It was four lane with a median in the middle. Instead of stop lights they had two lane “turn abouts” at the intersection. I’m glad some one else was driving. Being on the wrong side of the road was one thing but the turn abouts even made it seem more confusing.

Scott and Kathy needed propane for their boat so the first thing we did was get their propane tank filled. We then went to a place called “Cost Right” It was like a mini Sam’s Club. Things were sold in bulk. I spent $112.90 in that place. We then went to the bank (The Bank Of Nova Scotia Scotaplus) to get more cash. We went to the drive through window. We left the bank and went to the Graceway IGA Supermarket. I spent $174.60 inside this store. Please keep in mind that food is more expensive here than it is in the US. However, this store was the closest thing I’ve seen to a regular grocery store since I left the states. This town is pretty modern. There are a lot of five star resorts on this island. I could tell that a lot of the people shopping in the store were here on vacation. Cabs dropped them off and waited to take them back to their vacation spot.

Scott and Kathy did bring their boat into the shipyard before we left for town and their boat was tied along the seawall. When we returned from town, we unloaded their groceries and propane onto their boat. Kay met me at the seawall in the dinghy and we took our groceries back to the boat. I started putting things away while Kay and Denny took their computers into the marina shipyard in the dinghy. The shipyard was closed but they could get on line from the picnic tables ouside of the building. They said the bugs were really bad. Denny sent some pictures to the web site and downloaded our mail. Kay read his mail and the weather report. They returned to the boat and we ate supper (Chili-Mac). We took showers and went to bed.

Kay pulled up the achor at 8:40 a.m. We are leaving this anchorage just outside of the Caicos Marina Shipyard on the island of Providenciales and we are headed for Long Cay. We made water and ice, we read and took long naps. It is really, really hot and muggy now.

Kay put the anchor down on the southwest side of Long Kay at 4:31p.m. The boat “Osiris” that was anchored close to us the night of the storms, was anchored at this same achorage. We could see a nice beach along shore here with piles of conk shells. I didn’t dare ask them to take me over to get more shells. The insides of one of the other shells that I picked up fell out in our dinghy. That was a stinkey mess.

Kay and Denny put the dinghy in and went over to talk about the weather with the captain of “Osiris”. I started supper. I marinated chicken, make a salad, and fried up some regular potatoes and some sweet potatoes. Kay doesn’t like sweet potatoes but Denny and I do so I made both.

“Werus” called on the VHF radio and suggested we have a pot luck. “Osirus” is a fifty foot boat and could easily hold all of us so we agreed to gather there. Kay and Denny returned to our boat and we grilled the chicken.

Kay and Denny had came back to the boat with information about the weather as well as information about the waters south of Peurto Rico. Aparently our passage south will be very uncomfortable.

We gathered up our salad, potatoes, and chicken and headed for “Osiris”. “Osiris” is a beautiful boat. James “Jim” Graham is the name of her captain and he has lived on his boat full time for the last five years. He has completely rebuilt the inside of the boat and added a very comfortable pilot house to the deck of the boat. He was a former pilot for TWA. He was traveling with a lady friend named Mary Ann Blind. She was going to visit a friend in Luperon, Dominican Republic for the summer. We found them both very interesting people. Jim was very knowledgeable about the weather and the ocean.

We shared a nice meal and a little wine and headed back to our own boat. After the big meal and some wine we, needless to say, didn’t stay up late. We all went right to bed.

Today we made the decision to head back to the United States. After doing a reality check about the heat in Trinidad and the head winds we would face south of Puerto Rico, we decided to head north. Actually it is north west. We are going back to the condo in Florida.

Kay pulled the anchor up from Long Cay at 11:08 a.m. and we headed for South Caicos island to clear out of the Turks and Caicos. We saw a dinghy with a diver bringing up conk from the ocean botom. These waters must be loaded with conk. I guess that is why all of the shells are piled on the shore.

We dropped our anchor again at 12:28p.m. in Cockburn Harbor on the south west side of South Caicos island. We took the dinghy into the dinghy dock and walked to customs and immigration. They charged us $15.00 to clear out of the Turks and Caico islands. Denny was able to use their internet and send some pictures to the web site. We bought a couple of gator aids at a small grocery store and headed back to the dinghy. Denny talked to a couple of fishermen on the dock and I spied a large piles of conk shells. The fishermen on the dock said there is a man who come down and gets the shells to take back to Florida. I know Denny and Kay imagined how bad a load of conk shells would smell. We dinghied back to our boat and prepared to pull up the anchor. It was going to be a long voyage back to Key West, Florida. I would have thought they would have wanted to get a good nights sleep and head out in the morning but they decided to get started today.

We pulled up the anchor at 4:27p.m. We were leaving South Caico Island and heading non stop to Key West Florida.

Denny and Kay took turns at the helm all night. I slept.

I slept a lot in the day today. Denny does not sleep in the day. Kay will go down and lay in his bunk for a while but I don’t think he sleeps much. I know I am going to have to do a night shift at the helm or these guys are going to be exhausted after a couple of days.

It is very hot in the day. In the 90’s. The wind is on our noise today so we have to motor. The wind is behind us at night. I took the 9:30p.m. till 2:00a.m. shift. Kay took over till 6:00a.m. Denny slept in the cockpit and is available when needed.

We had pork chops, baked beans and salad for supper.

Today Denny told us we don’t have enough fuel to motor all the way back to Key West. We are going to have to sail without the motors as much as we can. I guess it is a good thing we are a sail boat and have that option.

It is still very hot. 90 degrees plus. We sailed all afternoon. We flew the spinnaker 4+ knots. We had leftover casserole for supper.

I did the 8:00p.m. till 2:30 a.m. shift. The wind died at midnight and we turned on the engins.

I sleep well in the day. There isn’t much else to do except read and sleep. We have made all kinds of water and make ice when we do run the engins. We had sloppy joes and salad for supper. We usually have cerial for breakfast and sandwitches for lunch. We haven’t been eating much because it is so hot in the day.

The wind has been behind us a lot in the day and we have been able to fly the spinaker. I took the 9:00p.m. till 3:00 a.m. shift. That is an easy one for me because I always have been able to sleep late in the morning.

As you can see the closer I get to Key West the less interested I get in my journal. Since we haven’t left the boat in several days there isn’t much to write about. Some days we don’t even see another boat in the day. When my shift began at 9:00p.m on Sunday night I knew we were only about 12 hours away from land. I would not be doing this shift tomorrow night.

We entered Key West harbor on (Memorial Day) Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. We had just traveled 675.5 miles and had not stepped off the boat almost 7 days. We were getting fuel at the fuel dock at the Bight Marina at 9:00 a.m.

We spent two very nice days at the Bight Marina. We stayed at the dock and could just step off the boat onto the dock and walk to town. We took our computers back to the Blond Giraffe Internet café and e-mailed family to let them know we made it back safely. We went to the US Customs and Immigrations office in Key West and checked ourselves back into our country. Kay rented a bike one day and rode all over the city. We ate out at the Hogs Breath Saloon on Tuesday night.

Denny and I had coffee in the restaurant (Turtle Crawl) at the end of the dock. Kay had some orange juice. I stopped at the Waterfront Market and picked up a dozen eggs, lettuce, bread and pickle relish. I was afraid the car wouldn’t start when we arrived back in Punta Gorda so I wanted to be sure we had bread and eggs. We paid for our dock at the marina office and pushed off the dock for our final leg of our trip home at 10:33 a.m.

We now had plenty of fuel so there wasn’t a worry about running out of disel. It was a 30 hour trip back to our condo in Punta Gorda (160 miles by water). We pulled into our dock at 3:36 p.m. on June 1, 2006. It has been a great adventure, but there is something to be said for a washer and dryer at your finger tips, a large refrigerator, long showers, air conditioning and T.V.

I finished another book. The Broker by John Grisham A lesson on how to be an Italian.