Short 30 mile trip from the Berries to Nassau. Final leg of our 875 nautical mile trip. Boat and all of its systems ran fine throughout the entire trip. Minor annoyance items we were able to repair while underway. Plugged seachests etc. No real problems.

Damage report from this trip: One push pole for the flats skiff. One camera (as I got low in the water in pursuit of a big bone: too low). Both were killers. The push pole loss really changed the way we fished. Instead of getting up wind with sun the our backs and drifting a flat until we found fish, we wound up walking or using kayaks. Both are noisy and these fish are spooky. Neither worked well and this costs us fish big time.

And the camera: well few or no pics. Had that camera for a long time. Digital Canon: but had an optical viewfinder. With digital viewfinding the screen isn't bright enough to see on a coral sand flat with any sun. And haven't seen a point and shoot digital with an optical viewfinder in a few years. Don't make them any more as far I can tell. Maybe ebay for this camera. She will be missed. Took alot of pics with that baby.

Another beautiful morning in the Berry Islands. This anchorage is gorgeous. We are in the middle of some of the finest bonefish flats. There's shallow water in every direction. Bonefish flats in every direction. We're in the middle of this. There is narrow path to this anchorage from the ocean. At night we when return in the skiffs we have to take round about ways to get back to the boat because the water is so shallow at low tide that our 4 inch draw skiffs can't make a direct route.

Yesterday we thought we hit low tide when we pulled up to a flat to fish. We anchored the boat in 12" of water: thinking the tide was going to start coming. We had our tides wrong. 3 hours later when we walked back to the skiff, it was high and dry.

Needless to state; knowing your tides in these out islands is key.

We made it to Chub Cay and cleared customs with little fanfare. The customs service is located at the airfield on Chub and it is a van ride from the harbour area. My cruising permit from last August seemed to give us another 3 months or so before we had to renew; but not so fast: Bahamian Customs charged us the 300; stating that the boat had left the Bahamas for more than 90 days, thereby revoking the one year permit.

That same day we received a visit from two young ladies on a sail from Michigan in a 27 foot sailboat. We passed them coming into Chub. The transmission on there small boat wasn't working and they were looking for help. So Rich and Eddie went over to have a look while I dealt with Customs. Eventually Rich and Eddie got them going. Later we invited them over to dinner and got this story:

Jesse and Katie started in Michigan in September 2012. Came down the Mississippi River to the Tennessee Tom Bigby, through Mobile and then down to Fort Myers, FL. They were early 20 something. No a/c. No generator. Tiny engine (and now not working properly). And here they were in the Bahamas. No refrigeration either. Impressive little story.

Eventually we left them in Chub and moved up the Berry chain to the anchorage we are currently in. Just prior to leaving though our push pole was stolen (at night) and hence me pushing the skiff around in this picture.

Final leg. Clear customs in Chub and will fish the Berry Islands. Reports of big bonefish from m/v Creola this week. Conch and lionfish as well.

Rich picking up a wahoo in the gulfstream. on the grill tonight. Smooth sailing. Smoothest gulfstream crossing we have seen. Light 5mph breeze out of the north. Clear blue skies. Good crossing.