Day 20 Wed 16-Apr 2014
Norman's Cay, Exumas
LAT N24 deg 35.93
LON W076 deg 49.43

[photo: actually of a subsequent stop - ocean side of the tidal creek at Shroud Cay]

We finally made it to the Exumas!

I can say that we both slept extremely well last night, despite the all too frequent swells rolling us. Diane had crashed in the main cabin, so I slept in the V-berth where I could stretch out athwartship (sideways) on the large berth. That meant the rolling didn't try to roll me side to side, which is very uncomfortable unless you are strapped in. Otherwise, you can't help but tense your muscles to counteract the motion and it is impossible to relax.

We awoke near 0600, had our cereal and got ready to weight anchor. Finding our way out of the anchorage through the south portion of the reef relied on GPS as the sun was not high enough to read the water well. That is not recommended, but if you can only travel so fast, you can't always have good light both leaving and arriving at your destination.

Getting to the Albany Marina only took an hour, and it was only about 30 minutes out of our way, but we needed fuel. There were two megayachts (over 100 feet long) at the fuel dock, but there was 50 feet available for our 36 foot boat - no problem. The difficulty developed, however, when the nozzle for the fuel hose was way too big for our boat. I had to use a funnel and then very carefully squeeze the handle to get just enough coming out instead of gushing. My hand was cramping badly by the time I was done.

The fueling took at least four times longer than it should have because of the nozzle size, and I had to make two trips to the office - one to give them my credit card for authorization and then at the end to finalize. The megayachts already know that they want 5,000 gallons of fuel, for example, so they just pay once. I didn't know if we needed 22 or 24, so it took longer.

By the way, there is a little uncertainty in the number, but it appears that my average fuel consumption from leaving Bimini until getting to Nassau (mostly beating into steep waves and fresh winds) was close to 1.0 gal/hr, which is very poor for us. Had we not been carrying extra fuel jugs, we would not have made it.

The delay didn't matter, though, because as we were leaving the marina channel, we spied Footloose and Slowdown on their course to Norman's Cay, our next stop. The start of the passage was great with enough wind to motor-sail. The waves were under 2 feet and the water was gorgeous. Had the wind been from the southwest and stronger, we could have sailed all the way there, but this was another 10 hour day and we wanted to be there with enough light to read the water.

About halfway through the passage, the wind got light and switched directions so that the sail had to come in and the engine speed was increased. With less wind, the waves got even smaller, so if you had to be motoring, at least it was a very pleasant run under blue, sunny skies.

We slowed down to let Footloose and Slowdown catch up, and then we led the way in through the shallow areas to the anchorage. We all set our hooks and went about our thing. Our priorities were for Duane to lower the dinghy and clean the cockpit and for Diane to straighten up down below. Duane set out in the dink to look at how well the anchor was set for Diva Di, then did the same for Slowdown and Footloose, along with an invitation to cocktails when they were ready.

They arrived in short order and we toasted the success of our long and sometimes arduous travels to get here. There were many good appetizers, and beverages, and lots of laughs and stories. We made some plans to explore Norman's Pond tomorrow by dinghy if the wind is not too strong. While I was below making yet another drink, we were passed close aboard by a large sailing catamaran and the skipper yelled something like, "you can run, but you can't hide." It was JJ, our new neighbor, with whom we had spent some time in Marathon. He anchored just abeam us.

We were starved for our supper when Slowdown and Footloose left and then we were hailed by JJ on Windfall to come over for drinks. We answered it would be a short while, and once again it was great to have leftover food to quickly heat on the stove. Only 15 minutes after the hail, we popped over to Windfall and met JJ's wife, Judy, plus two guests aboard. It was a nice chat getting to know them all. Before we left, JJ gave us three packages of frozen dolphin fish (Mahi-Mahi), which we later shared with the other two boats.

By 2200, it was long overdue for bedtime, so we zipped back to Diva Di and hit the sack for a nice, quiet sleep.