Feb. 8 Left Nassau for Allen's Cay to see the Iguanas, however since the weather was so good we decided to go on to Highbourn Cay. We were doing 6 knots with just the headsail, really nice. Anchored next to a little reef and Stew caught a little grouper and a snapper in 2 casts.
We had thought we had a rudder problem when we were leaving Nassau, but decided to keep going as we thought it was the current, and it was.

Left the next day for Shroud Cay; nice sail. We picked up a mooring nearest the beach. Shroud Cay is in the Exuma Sea Park. There was nothing on the island except a pay box for those honest enough to leave their $15, of course we did.
OMG!!!! The next morning which was the 4th day since Stew had done the full 10 days of antibiotics and felt great, he was up at 3:30 and then again early with problems. I had a massive anxiety attack.
Gave him 2 of the Cipro antibiotics and then texted our friends Alan and Carla and our daughter for information on a different antibiotic that I had aboard (actually it was for our dog, a big German Shepherd, but “people antibiotics from Publix) .Alan got right back to me with all the info on our IN REACH and I gave him one on those at noon. The fever had just barely started, and the new drug seemed to be working right off. BUT here we are in the middle of nowhere, he is still sick and weak and the wind is howling. I am running our of Valium, seriously.
We leave the next morning as Chris Parker says the wind will diminish soon. Well not only did it not diminish but it picked up and we were nose diving into 3 to 5 foot seas. OK 3 hours later a maybe 6 to 7 footer goes over the dodger and swamps the cockpit. Stew comes us and sees me mostly gripped to the wheel and says what the hell! Should we turn back,,,, to where? Back to a desolate anchorage with big waves in it?? So we go on. Some how I truly believe it will calm down, not just because of my prayers to Posiedon but it just has to. We are getting the shit kicked out of our poor old boat. The driveshaft starts groaning so we back off to a roaring 4 knots. Our easy 4 to 5 hour trip of me driving as Stew rests is now looking at being about 8 hours of hell. Finally around 1 pm I can feel it lightening up and the big waves being farther apart.
As we are closing in on Staniel Cay it is calming down and so beautiful. We are surprised at the shallow entry, even with our 4 and a half foot draft 6 feet of water seems a little scarey. Not nearly as bad as the roaring current coming through the cut right in front of the marina, which is closed of course.
The moorings are even crazier, so we head back out and back track just a short ways to Big Major Spot which is a great anchorage and famous for it's swimming pigs.
We drop a hook, and call it a long day.
The next day as getting ready to take Belle into the beach we saw a few chickens and some big brownish rocks on the beach. The rocks started moving and we waved off as all those pictures of the cute little swimming pink pigs looked like big aggressive hogs! We heard later that they tried to climb in a dinghy at the beach after food and did quite a bit of damage. We did see them swimming by another bigger fishing boat a few days later and got some pics.