We had a great sail from Nassau over the Yellow Bank to Allen's Cay. The Yellow Bank can be a little scary as there are huge coral heads all over the place. But as long as one person is on watch, they are hard to miss, huge black spots in the water.

We spent one night at the crowded anchorage in Allen's Cay. We ran aground coming into the anchorage on the sandy bottom. It was perfectly charted and I was at the bow on the watch, but I guess it was both of our faults. Time to work on communication skills. I didnt let Dave know in a frantic enough voice that there was shallow water coming up, so he figured it was far enough away. Oh well. We got help from a friendly neighbor with a large motor on his dinghy to push us off. We went ashore with the dogs on a beach without the iguanas. We never did go over and see the infamous iguanas, but we saw them on the beach from the boat. The water was like liquid air, so clear, in 12 feet we could see our anchor on the bottom.

A cold front was on it's way in so we decided to make it over to Eleuthera and hide out and wait for it to pass. A huge squall came over the morning we were about to leave. The winds picked up 20-25 knots with buckets of rain falling. We took that opportunity to scrub the deck after the mess we made tracking muck around in Nassau. The skies cleared up and we made our way out into the Exuma Sound. The 40 mile passage was beautiful. The sun came out and the wind died down. Unfortunately the sails were luffing quite a bit, but Dave was able to cook up a great omlet and we celebrated our 1st Anniversery with a beautiful day. Dave caught a Yellowfin Tuna on the way in and we were able to eat a delicious tuna dinner complete with mango lime chutney for our Anniversery dinner!

The wind started to pick up on our way into Rock Sound and we had to hustle to hunker down for a secure anchorage on the far side of the Sound. We were comfortable for the next two days while the 30 knot winds howled during the night and the rain pounded the roof. We spent the day reading and tidying the cabin. Yesterday the weather cleared enough for us to leave the boat and we rented a car and drove up the 110 mile island of Eleuthera. We took the ferry to Harbour Island, a cute quaint little island on the north end of Eleuthera. Reminded me of what Key West might have been like back in the old days. The beach there was beautiful! The infamous Pink Sand beaches really were pink! There were flecks of fuschia and pastel pink in the talcum powder soft white sand. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and had a great drive back. It was absolutely freezing though, probabaly in the 60's and still rather windy. Of course I decided to wear shorts. Plus the dinghy ride back, 2 miles across the bay, was rough and wet and awfully cold. A much needed scotch awaited us upon our return.

Today the weather cleared up, it's beautiful again, but we are taking this time to get some last errands and boat projects done before we take off for Norman's Cay tomorrow and on along the Exuma Island chain.

The picture attached is the pink sand beach on Harbour Island.