Rain rain, go away, come again another day.
We have been battling storms, squalls, rain and lightening for the past week and a half. After our trip up from Staniel Cay, we hunkered down at Norman's again and took advantage of spending time with friends.

Our trip to Shroud Cay and Warderick Wells was peaceful. We got a great anchorage away from the weather and winds at Warderick. The Bahamas Land and Sea Park headquarters are housed on Warderick Wells. There are also hiking trails that wind all around the rocky island. The island is made of porous limestone, making the hiking treacherous and sharp if you don't have the appropriate footwear. We took a trip to headquarters, a small building perched atop a small hill overlooking the protected anchorage. There they had a library of books about the Bahamas, novels, reference and non-fiction. Dave picked up a copy of "Winds from the Carolinas", which is a Michener style novel about the first settlers that came down from Charleston to Eleuthera. I'm looking forward to reading it as well. We took a hike around the island and climbed into caves, larger limestone formations in the ground. On top of Boo Boo Hill, which is said to be haunted by the shipwrecked souls that crashed on the rocky shore one dark night, is a collection of boat names painted or carved into driftwood. If you find your perfect piece of driftwood, you are to paint your boat name and date you were there. We saw quite a few boats we knew perched on top of Boo Boo Hill.

The next day we trekked up to Shroud Cay. Shroud is a wet island, mainly mangroves, with cuts throughout the island. Last time Dave was there, they went at night, with a full moon and took their dinghy to drift with the tide through the cuts. I felt like we were back in Florida, exploring the estuaries, but the main difference, not a person or boat or house were anywhere in sight. It is still part of the Land and Sea Park, so it is protected and natural. We took a cut for as long as it would go, all the way through the island to the ocean side. It started pouring down rain so we motored back to our boat in the rain, soaking ourselves. It continued to rain for most of the evening. So we put on our comfys and cooked up some hot toddy's and enjoyed the cozy day.

I cant believe the difference in the islands, from Warderick, the rocky, scrubby island with patches of lush palms, to Shroud, all mangroves, to Norman's with it's wispy casurina trees. Each island, although only a few miles separating each one, are all completely different. Warderick is home to these larger lizards with curly tails that will let you pick them up if you want, Norman's has these tiny lizards that scurry away if you are get closer than a few yards away. Allen's Cay to the north is home to the iguanas.


The next morning we motored the short way up to Norman's. The skies were beautiful, until we got underway and we noticed a black cloud looming in the distance. It was on us just as we were navigating the cut into Norman's Southeast anchorage. Again, we were drenched. When we got to the anchorage, we asked our friends Jeff and Tracy on Amelie if they thought we were hardy or crazy for getting stuck in that squall. I think a little of both.

We spent the next week catching up with everyone on Norman's. Stefan and Beth, Josh and Roxanne, John and Molly and all of the other island regulars. We had a great going away part on Friday night. Dave went crab hunting for land crabs with Bruce and caught a good dozen of them. You chase them at night with a flashlight and scoop them up (without getting pinched). Bruce had set up a pen for the crabs he caught and it is brimming with crab. Apparently you are supposed to flush their systems before you eat them, feed them rice to get them to taste better, we ate ours the next night and were surprised to find their insides a poopy brown color. Good meat in the legs and claws though. All the regulars were there on Friday night. A fun, mellow crowd. Jason played guitar for us and we all sang along. Then Molly and Roxanne picked out some European dance music for us to dance to late night. The boys did crab races and Josh's crab creamed the competition. Dave successfully taught his crab to open a beer bottle (all captured on film). It was sad to say goodbye.

Pegasus and Amelie left Sunday morning for Nassau. We both need to get going back to the states so we decided to buddy cruise together up to the Abacos. We had quite the crossing. If you maybe remember from our January crossing to the Exumas, we have to cross the Yellow Bank, a section of 10 ft water with coral heads scattered about. You definitely don't want to hit one of those coral heads. We had several minor rain showers come over us as we were making our way across to Nassau, but just as we were about to the Yellow Bank, the biggest squall I've seen yet decided to grace us with it's presence. We could see the menacing clouds from a distance, so we decided to divert and try to get out of it's path. Cruising at 5 ½ knots didn't get us where we wanted to in time. It hit us suddenly, with gusting winds that forced us to take all the sails down and turn into the wind, south, the exact opposite direction we wanted to go. Then the rains came, pouring torrents of rain that blinded us with its pelting large drops. It only lasted about 30 minutes, but it was enough to drench us through our foul weather gear. At last we could turn and head the right direction, into the Yellow Bank. The winds had churned up the water and the glare of the passing storm made it impossible to see the coral heads. Our best bet was to follow the previous path we had taken on the GPS. We made it through, unscathed, and the sailing was decent after that. Just as we were getting to Nassau, we watched another black cloud hang over the island for 2 hours as we slowly motored closer. It finally decided to let go and drop buckets of rain just as we were coming into the harbor. We were exhausted after the long day so Jeff and Tracy had us over for pizza and a game of Catch Phrase, which helped to calm the nerves.

Today was a provisioning day, it's been raining and thunder and lightening all afternoon. It's kind of unnerving being on the boat when lightening is cracking overhead, so we decided to come to shore and do some interneting. Tomorrow we are off to Eleuthera and then our longer passage to the Abacos the day after that. I'm looking forward to the Abacos, small towns that are New England style. I'll keep you posted on our next leg when I can! Hope all is well for everyone back at home.