March 10, 2012. Heading to GeorgeTown to pickup Sarah...very excited.

March 10-16, 2012. Wonderful week in GeorgeTown with Sarah. Fun to reminisce with her. Rake and scrape at Eddie's Edgewater one night (great cracked lobster!), dinner at St. Francis Resort, shopping in town, little sunbathing on the beach, etc. good relaxing springbreak for her. Homemade pizza on Onward. Joe is quite the cook. Love his pepper biscotti and almond, fruit biscotti.

March 17, 2012. Cruisers' rally to Long Island. 33 boats!

March 18-22, 2012. Departed Long Island after a wonder visit beginning with a cruisers' rally from George Town to Thompson Bay nest Salt Pond, Long Island. Fun race...Ladyhawke took 2nd after Sea Star, an IP 440 (oh, horrors!) in our class and 2nd on elapsed time after French Kiss, Beneteau 50. Great cruisers' luncheon at Tryphena's Thompson Bay Yacht Club and awards dinner dance at Long Island Breeze, with Rockne' Ron from Sea Dancer as the DJ/MC. Very fun! We tip our hats to Ron and Karen for all the hard work organizing the regatta and parties. They do an incredible job!

Spent two days with Joe from Onward and Jill from Earendil, another Norseman 447, driving all over the island. The southern tour took us to the most southern point, then some trail-blazing,or so it seemed, over some very rough terrain, aka dirt roads, to find Little Harbor on the Atlantic coast, climbed the Catholic Church tower in Clarencetown for a great view, late lunch/ early dinner at Rowdy Boys ( name doesn't do it justice..lovely little resort) and a climb around Dean's Blue Hole ( 602 ft deep and agree dive training area). The church tower was amazing...Circular stairs and then three ladders with a top opening so small the Ingo couldn't get through!

The next day was the northern tour, with a stop at Stella Maris Marina, a short walk to Adderly Plantation ruins, lunch and rum punches at Stella Maris Resort and a platting lesson from bartender Sue. The afternoon took us to the very northern end of Queen's Highway and then back in time for a lovely dinner at Chez Pierre. Chez Pierre is a very unpretentious bungalow on the beach at Miller's Bay with a marvelous French chef, honor bar and totally unexpected find on Long Island, let alone, the Bahamas.

Unfortunately, Bud and Jill from Earindil couldn't join us for dinner. Bud had flipped his dinghy, very lucky to only have a few scrapes, but had to get the engine desalted and back in running condition. There's a safety lesson there for all of us. He didn't have a bracelet on for the kill switch and accidentally hit the throttle, falling off the stern. And nearly getting run over by his own dinghy...very near catastrophe.

March 23, 2012. Headed to the north tip of Long Island, Calabash Bay to see the Columbus Monument and spend the night before heading to Conception. Fabulous broad reach with the staysail,15-20 knots, moving at 6.5-7 knots, doesn't get much better than this! Sadly, French Kiss, who we were meeting there along with Onward, had electronics problems and returned to GeorgeTown this morning. We'll enjoy Joe's company alone.

Took dinghy to see the Columbus Monument...rugged outside with lots of swells but well worth the view. Huge eroded white cliffs, waves splashing onshore...beautiful! On the way, we scared the ink out of a squid! Really! A surprise for us and the squid...it left a huge trail of ink as it launched itself and flew about 20 feet across the water in the air. Just amazing!