Highborne Cay turned out to be a great choice of places to hang out while the front (yes, another one!) passed through. Conditions ranged from a light drizzle to steady rain with constant winds in the mid-20 kt range, gusts to 30. This front with rain made up for all the previous dry months and was welcomed by the locals. Two days later, conditions moderated so we could head to shore for a nice lunch at Xuma before departing for Nassau on May 2. We had visited Highborne on our last trip but have very few memories. Since then, the owners have expanded the marina and added a wonderful bar and restaurant with excellent cuisine. By far the best conch fitters, made with veggies and huge conch chuncks instead of lots of dough. The conch chowder was also wonderful - made with curry and coconut milk...yum!

May 2 brought sunshine, light air and an easy motor sail into Nassau harbor. With an extra day before Peter and Chris' arrival, we spent an afternoon on Paradise Island at Atlantis and explored the two main aquariums. The predator tank was facinating, being able to walk in a tunnel within the tank and look up at sharks swimming overhead with the sky as a background. Definitely worth the trip!

Peter and Chris arrived on May 4, but instead of waiting until May 6 to depart Nassau, we took the good weather window and headed out the next day, May 5. Having the boys on board was wonderful, especially making the watches easier. So nice to have extra hands on board. Ingo and I took the midnight to daybreak watch and what a beautiful night it was! We were treated to the brilliant "supermoon", the full moon when the path of the moon is closest to the earth and therefore, the moon is the brightest of all the full moons. This occurs once a year. However, our luck was not going to hold. The following night was predicted to bring squalls and thunderstorms off the coast of St. Augustine, so we bailed out and headed in to Port Canaveral for the night.

After an uneventful night at the fuel dock and checking into Customs/Immigration the next morning, we dropped the dock lines on May 7 and headed back for the Gulf Stream. As predicted, the winds which started out northerly (not good at all for the Gulf Stream!), shifted to the east...which we thought would be fine. However, no one told the waves to stay in sync with the wind! The washing machine started in the early evening! The wave swells which started out of the north, mixed with the wave swells out of the east from the wind...what an uncomfortable ride! At their worst, the swells were 10-12 feet and coming from random directions. On the positive side, the conditions persisted only about 10 hours, before smoothing to just easterly swells at 2-4 feet the next morning.

At that point, and learning that the conditions were not conducive to round Cape Hatteras, we decided to head directly to Beaufort, NC and then continue up the ICW to Hampton, VA. Beaufort is such a lovely town! Next time we need to plan to stay a day or two to enjoy the area and fine dining along the waterfront. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, but enjoyable. I had forgotten how pleasant the passage on the ICW can be on a warm, sunny day...watching for turtles sunning themselves on logs and bald eagles and ospreys flying by. The first night we anchored in Pungo Creek and enjoyed a quiet evening on board. The second night we made the mandatory stop and tied up at Coinjock Marina, the home of the 32 oz. prime ribs for the carnivorous crew (instead, had fried green tomatoes with shrimp Louis on top and soft shelled crabs...to die for!). By Saturday afternoon, we made it through all the opening bridges and the Great Bridge Lock, in time for the block party in downtown Hampton. (Apparently, downtown Hampton hosts a block party every Saturday night with music, vendors, etc, from April through September.) Sadly, we said goodbye to Peter and Chris on Sunday so they could drive back home, back to reality and work. At least they were able to spend a week on the water and get a relaxing break...we'll take what we can get!

Happy Mother's Day!