On January 20, 2014 we reluctantly said good-by to Midori with Brian and Lynn. We hated to leave them behind, but Brian had been "under the weather ", and they wanted to stay close to a Dr. Our day was wonderful and the winds were laying so we did a lot of motoring. We had planned to go North to Rodrigues Key, but we made such good time that we went further up to Angel Fish Channel. A great first day! A good dinner, then off to bed. Early the next morning we were off to Bimini. Most of the crossing was uneventful but it started kicking up as we closed into the island. People on shore later told us they enjoyed watching us "rock and roll". We arrived in time to "meet the neighbors" and join everyone for happy hour...which included lobsters on the grill. ( 12 small lobsters = $25.00)

We spent 3 days on Bimini. One day we took the local shuttle boat over to South Bimini and walked to the Shark Institute. Not a lot to see, but later in the week we watched them catch a Reef shark near our marina. We did not have very good weather the few days we were on the Island, so we stayed close to the boat. When the weather changed, we were off again. We went south from Bimini (usually we head North) and went towards Cat and Gunn islands then anchored that night on the "banks" a really calm night. Next day we went past Nassau and anchored off Rose Island another calm night. We went from Rose straight over to Spanish Wells. This is a very civilized, clean, organized, fishing island. By this time Steve and I were both catching a cold and feeling pretty bad...in fact we felt so bad we even rented a golf cart to go to the grocery instead of walking. We tried to do a little shopping, but we didn't even feel like buying anything!!! we stayed pretty much to ourselves so we didn't "spread the joy" around too much. We only stayed two nights and then (still not feeling well) we were off again through 'currant cut' to Eleuthera. We joined Van and Lauren (Gratitude) at Rock sound and had a nice dinner and the next day both boats headed for the Exumas. We anchored near Emerald Rock in the Land and Sea Park for the night and then headed on south. We went to check in on Sampson Key and they went on to Staniel. Our favorite little hole has now been changed to a private island, and no one is allowed on it any more...we really enjoyed visiting there in the past. So our next stop was Black Point Settlement.
We were still fighting the colds, but we did go to shore for the Super Bowl. We had burgers and fries at Scorpios with Pru and Bert from "Exuberant" and had a very nice evening. We did laundry, shopped, and enjoyed the rest of the week in the harbor. There were 117 boats in the harbor. On Thursday we moved further south to Little Farmers for the 5 F festival ( First Friday February Farmers Festival). The best part of this was the small Bahama class c boat races. The sun was very hot, the music was loud, and the food was good, and we were starting to feel better. It was a fun week-end. WE next moved the boat on down to Georgetown, just off Stocking island at Vollyball beach.