(Photo: Semper V underway, taken from Wind of Peace)

Yesterday was "Friday Routine" (Naval lingo for a thorough cleaning before Capatin's Rounds) day aboard Semper V, even though it wasn't Friday. With one less adult onboard, one gains a fair bit of lebensraum, which I used to give the boat a much-needed thorough scrub below decks from top to bottom, from V-berth forward to aft cabin. The girls helped by doing homework and staying out of my way, and as I grunted my way through the obscure corners of the boat with bucket, soap, brush and cloth, I was reminded of a George Carlin take-off on a TV ad for detergent (Husband:"Honey, my shirt (boat in my case) has hidden dirt!" Wife:"Well it's your dirt, you hid it, man..."). My next step is to re-sort and arrange the cabinets so that Judy won't find what she's looking for when she returns to the Bahamas next week, as we all know that men and women have different thought processes when it comes to storage. (Just kidding, dear...are you reading this in Halifax? How's the weather? Got a new snorkel to replace the one I lost? Love you.....)
The weekly supply boat arrived at Staniel Cay this morning, and once the shelves were stocked and the doors opened at the local grocery store, we dinghied over to load up on some fresh fruit and veg, just itching to have a nice salad and some bananas as well. Once the groceries were stowed on board, we weighed anchor and headed down to Black Point Settlement, the second-largest community in the Exumas after Georgetown. It was just a short hop down the islands, five miles on a south-westerly reach and then four miles on a south-easterly port tack into a 15-20 knot east wind, and it marked the first time I had sailed the boat on this trip without Judy. Didn't break it either, sweetie... Steph did great work up forward whilst anchoring, managing to free a snag in the anchor chain that was preventing its paying out through the hawse, while I tried to hold position in the strengthening winds.