I remember this place from last time. I found those crazy four-legged animals that needed a good chase and rounding up. Goats I think they're called. Wow, it was great to be on an open beach again after almost being permanently attached to the leash in Cuba. I took Ray for a walk but got a bit distracted by a herd of goats and Ray just couldn't keep up. It was a miserable, rainy day and pretty soon I got so wrapped up in the chase that I forgot where I was. I reckon I covered the entire island today and it was really great to see Ray finally turn up over the other side of the island. The whole family was out looking for me apparently.
Today, Milo did a runner after the goats and Ray was ashore, sans VHF, trying to track him down for a couple of hours. Meanwhile squalls with lightning and thunder were threatening which was not a good look for Milo who's not great in thunderstorms. I could hear Milo barking up one end of the island but Ray was at the other. A few hand signals from the boat set him on the right path but when he went bush and didn't come back out, Sam and I donned the wet gear and headed off on the rescue mission. Several cooees later, we saw Ray with Milo held above his head looking like a drowned water rat forcing his way through the scrub back to our beach. That dog will be lucky if he ever gets to run on the beach again.
Weatherwise, looks like we're staying where we are for a few days. The Jumentos islands are beautiful but more exposed than other areas in the Bahamas. Hog Cay seems to have the best protection in our prevailing conditions of Easterly and South-easterly winds up to 25 knotas and higher during squalls. The big issue in these parts is the surge that comes in from the ocean onto the bank and the surge wraps around into the anchorages. We've got three or four more days exactly like today, so we're just going to hunker down and wait for it to pass through.