Bob carrying groceries on dock. photo of 770 ft long wooden dock in Cherokee, Abacos. The longest wooden dock in the commonwelth of the Bahamas.

Tomorrow we hope to leave Green Turtle and take 3 days to sail back gulf stream to US. Making short trips as the auto pilot is broken. Hand steering is tiresome. How we EVER did it in the Macgregor is beyond us know. Rose colored glasses? The boat gods sent us another electrical engineer, boat builder, John from Folly. He and Kerry left England 12 years ago after building their aluminum hull sloop and are circumnavigators. So it has a broken part, and can't be fixed right now. On the already long growing job list for Florida.

Said good bye to Provo, and left for overnight in abrahams Bay Mayaguana. We had a quick walk around town and stopped at Debbies for take away cracked conch dinners. the fishermen had just returned with their catchs. Locals talk about a resort developement for which a land survey is in progress. Many of the islands have started and never completed projects. Sad to see major projects stopped for some reasons and left to crumble. It is going on all over.
On to Atwood for overnight then push on to Clarence town as strong front high winds with squalls predicted. No sense in getting weathered in for several days in an isolated anchorage. We need water , propane, and provosions, and there is nothing available in Atwood. while in Provo we met a pro fisherman captain Randy. He advised us to get a blue and white cedar plug for catching tuna. It looks like a flying fish entering water. Ok, got it!
So yes indeed we put it in tandem with another lure and bingo 2 yellow fin tuna. Sushi tonight. Excellent sailing with reefed main. Pushing more than 8 knots on beam reach. No pounding.

Yesterday morning in a flurry after listening to our weather guru Chris Parker we got a dsc call from Never Bored " great window wanna go Samana?" Sure quick check out the customs agent happened to be near Blue Dive Shop. So good as it otherwise meant a trip via hitching to "downtown" a half day experience. Lady luck one in our favor. Bob ran got washing water Chris and Sheila got our gas and dropped off trash. The dingy up and outboard secured. Haul anchor we don' t need to apply for residency in Provo. Cleared the Leewari inlet markers and took a right turn set course for Samana. Good so far except recalculating distance it was 2 overnights. We choose to not do this and turned around to retrace back to Florida. Hard decision not to be in on the adventure. It is the right one for sure. Will miss our buddy boat Never Bored and Windswept dreams .see them on land. And hear all the stories.

Pix of Bob Gascione / hydrographer for Wavy Line Charts shown with his discovery of Lucayan paddle.

In 1996 Capt/ hydrographer Bob Gascoine found a 900 yr old Lucayan paddle underwater at Grand Turks. It has been preserved and housed in the Lucayan Gallery which is under reconstruction.