January 11, 2011 - January 29, 2011

We had an uneventful New Year's Eve in Thompson Bay. We choose to stay on the boat instead of going to any of the parties being offered. Oh to be so old.
We left Thompson Bay to head to the Jumentos and landed in Water Cay for the night The next day we had a great sail on the ocean side of the Jumentos hoping to catch some fish. Fine Lion caught a tuna and that was all that was caught. We entered Nurse cut and stayed at Buenavista Cay for the night. Fine Lion had us over for Ahi Tuna - yum!
Our chart plotter is starting to go on the fritz. It will cut out on us and we have to factory reset it and loose all of our waypoints. We will have to send it in for repairs at the end of the season. The good news is - the engine still seems to be working fine.

We went to Double Breasted Cay next. We did some diving for lobster and got quite a few, then we decided to look for conch and got twelve. We explored the beaches and found some sea beans. There have been a few beach parties and we have met a lot of new people. Sam the Skull has hooked up with us and Barry has been teaching him how to hunt lobster.

We moved to Racoon Cay January 10th. Barry and John (Sam the Skull) went out lobstering Jan 11 and came back with nine more lobster. Our freezers are full, so we are having a conch salad party on Fine Lion today at 4:00 - we (Fine Lion, Sapphire, Nigh Hawk and Sam the Skull) make the best ever conch salad.

There are no homes on any of these little Cays down here except for Duncan Town on Ragged Island. There is a little store there, but they never have much in it. Maxine (the owner) lets us call her on the VHF and put in orders, so we did that and will all head down there for Friday to pick up our fresh veggies.

It is so peaceful down here. Not many boats come here, so the radio is quiet and there are not people making silly rules to follow. We will probably stay here for at least a month. Duncan Town has internet service, so we can actually do some computer chores.
We have met John and Barbara on Sam the Skull and Barry helped John with hunting Lobster. Now John is an expert and got six on his own in one day.
There are many boats down here now, so it is getting a little crowed. We have had many beach parties and one night there was a full moon and we had a dinghy float when it got dark and the moon came up - luckily it was at 6:30pm. The other boats were, Fine Lion, Sapphire, Sam the Skull, Savage Son, Far Niente, My Destiny, Synergy and one other boat - it was a lot of fun. The Jumentos are beautiful and there are lots of beaches to explore and coral head to dive on.

We decided to move back to Long Island today, Jan 27th with Sapphire and Sam the Skull. It is nice to be back in "civilization". The first thing we all did was head to Long Island Breeze for internet and Philly Cheese Steaks. Kathy and I walked to the marine store and managed to get our hair cut next door without waiting. It is always nice to get a "real" haircut when we can. We have access to a van and think we will go on Monday and explore the south end of the island - down to the blue hole and salt fields etc. etc.

Thats about it for now - we will keep swimming, exploring and meeting new people.