Cheryl's Notes:

I am not sure that we are ever going to get farther south than Black Point. By this time next week, we will have had four cold fronts move through the area. The first one this past Monday night, proved to be small and weak. We stayed in Black Point and got mostly rain. The second one came through on Wednesday into Thursday, was a ball buster. We stayed in Black Point, but moved closer to land to have a break from the northwest winds. The problem is that it stayed to the west most of the night and the next day. There is no protection there from westerly winds. Between the wind and the waves, we felt like we were in a rodeo. At one point I told John, "Beam me up Scotty, I want to go home". Friday morning dawned with blue skies and a light wind. The waves were still a little bit choppy, but manageable. The three Catalina's, Onward, Just Limin' and ourselves, decided that we needed to find somewhere safer for the next two blows. With Leprechaun in the lead, we moved back north towards Compass Cay. Our last stay there brought us some local knowledge. There is a small cut by Pike Cay with good all round protection. Even though we are newbies to the Bahamas, we are the only boat in our group that has made this tricky entrance, thus we were the leaders. Joe on Onward has a six foot draft and bumped bottom twice, but we all made it in safely. We ended up coming in a mean low water, so at least Joe knows that he can get back out safely on a rising tide.

The best part of the past week is meeting up with Jim and Leslie of Just Limin' (Catalina 375) who we initially met in Fort Lauderdale, and making the acquaintance of Joe from Onward (Catalina 470). We had a pizza party on Joe's boat the night of the first cold front, and a spaghetti dinner on Just Limin' the night before our wild rodeo ride. Leprechaun is planning a chili feed, but we are afraid of jinxing the weather. There is a front due through late tonight, and then another one Monday into Tuesday. In the meantime, we are enjoying Tucker burgers and sharing our favorite beach with our friends.

John's Notes:

I've been at anchor for lots of storms but I'm not sure I've ever had a more miserable night than the last storm we weathered on Wednesday night. Wednesday afternoon, a local with a 24' T-Top sport fisher, stopped by our boat and asked if he tied his boat to his mooring ball, would I be willing to follow him and take him to the government dock. Sure, why not? When I pick him up at his boat he asks me where we are going for the "blow." I tell him that all of us have decided to stay here. How bad could it be? We have already ridden out a couple of blows at Big Majors. He says, "Oh no mon, you have to get out of here. You need to at least go a few miles south of here, but it would be better if you found a more protected anchorage. He is telling me this around 4:00 and we only have a couple of hours of daylight left. I tell him thanks but we will probably stay put. He just shakes his head and wishes us good luck. Today's lesson: Pay attention to the locals.

We've had three "Catalina" nights. Great fun. We are the smallest Catalina in the bunch so we have deferred to the bigger boats to host happy hours. We'll get our turn soon.

Update on the "Man of Steel" accident. It was the professional captain driving the tender that night. Needless to say, his career is over. The scuttlebutt is that he was drinking as much as anyone. Don't know that for a fact but the information comes from the locals, and, as just noted above, they know more than we do. According to my local source, the severely injured are still in the hospital.

We are still amazed at the lack of fish and birds. We have been told that the lack of fish comes from the fact that there are very few nutrients in the water here. Not enough to support a large fish population. That is one of the reasons that the water is so clear. With regard to the birds, they are supposedly further south for the winter and will be returning soon. Well, we will be heading back north soon also. Still wondering just how far south the birds have to go to be "south."

Hard to believe that yesterday I was depended on as the source of local knowledge to get into this anchorage. We had only been here once and it was a white knuckler' for me. I had to dispose of my underwear after the first trip. Everything went smooth though. Cheryl's navigation remains untouchable. As long as the charts are correct, she puts us right in the anchorage. We still keep a visual lookout though. Sandbars have a way of shifting but we have yet to run aground with her GPS plots. One of these days though, we are going to have to consider upgrading our electronics package. Maybe on the next boat....