This is a photo of Dave and Nicole chilling and taking in a good book. Yes...that really is Dave reading, not just a prop. This is what happens when you remove the TV from the kids.

After leaving Eleuthera, we headed for Spanish Wells where we spent several days on a mooring. Here, we waited out a low-pressure system off the coast of Georgia that was whipping up the winds to near hurricane force and creating seas in the 20-30' range. This is the same system that a couple of days later had been named the first tropical storm of the season, Andrea. The impact to us was large seas and swells in the 10-15' range from the North, which is the direction we are headed to cross to the Abacos.
We are finding the more we travel north, the more we feel like we are getting closer to the US. Everything is brighter, bigger and busier with tourists arriving from everywhere. While here, we enjoyed a dinner out which is always a treat and Lisa, being the brave one, had a Turtle sandwich. Spanish Wells was a very enchanting island with golf carts being the prime means of transportation.
The seas finally settled down on Thursday. With good sailing winds promised, we departed Spanish Wells for the Abacos. It wasn't the greatest of sails with barely any winds, which meant motoring the entire 60 miles. The highpoint of the trip was the 3' Dorado we hooked. But... with every high comes a low, and the low point was Dave falling overboard trying to land the fighting beast. Thankfully, Lisa had slowed the boat down to help bring the fish in, so it was just a matter of me swimming to the boat. Easier said then done, I was a little stunned when I hit the water (13,000' deep) so I didn't react as quickly as I should have. Nor did I give a thought to the injured fish that I had been brining in. Can you say chumming the water? Not to mention I didn't want to loose my hat or sunglasses, so I took the time to make sure they were secured. When Lisa yelled swim, I finally snapped to it and started swimming while she backed the boat up to meet me half way. Safely aboard, I was pleased to find out DJ still had the fish on the hook. We brought it in with no additional drama and enjoyed it for dinner. You can image, everyone on the boat was a little freaked from the Man overboard drill, but pulled it together and on we went.
We arrived in Hope Town in the Abacos yesterday; we were surprised how much we missed the hustle and bustle of a touristy town. It reminded us a lot of Martha's Vineyard. We will spend a couple days here, then it is on to Marsh Harbor where we will do our final provisioning prior to our departure from the Bahamas. We have a couple more weeks in the Bahamas then it is time to head back to the states. Our current plan is depart the Northern Bahamas and catch the Gulf Stream north to Beaufort, NC. This is a 560 -mile run which should take about 72 hours depending on winds. More on that to come.