well, we've come as far south as we are going to, this season. we arrived in georgetown in the middle of the last race of the 2013 family regatta. each year, boats come from all over the bahamas for 5 days of racing and frivolity. we had hoped to arrive to see the whole weeks worth, but we all know how that goes...best laid plans and all.

just a few add ons to mart's last submission. on tuesday, the 23rd, we awoke to find our dinghy had gone walkabout. not having a dinghy presents all kinds of problems, but early in the morning, the most pressing issue is getting lily to land. mart untied the kayak and put it in the water. he got in and then called for lily. keep in mind, we had yet to introduce her to the kayak and its precarious state of balance, or lack of. but she is so trusting, that she hopped right on and together they made it to shore and back probably more dry than had they gone by dinghy. the other potential problem is that by the fish cleaning station, there can be between 5 and 12 sharks. you really don't want to go overboard and find yourself being the equivalent of eggs benedict. we later learned that they are nurse sharks who are so well fed on fish carci, humans aren't even on the menu. good news, the dinghy was found stuk on some rocks, somehow the lock did not hold, and a short trip to sampson cay brought it home safely. phew...

so, cait left the next day from the open air check in counter at the staniel cay airstrip. we stayed 2 more nights then did a quick 2 hours to little farmers cay. it was very important that we stop there, as we had planned, that word again, to meet some friends from stuart at the first friday in febuary festival in farmers cay. only 3 months late, but worth the stop. fewer than 70 people live there. there is a marina with a restaurant and bar, 2 convenient stores, mainly stocked with canned goods and the ocean cabin. a lovely restaurant and bar which houses 1 of 2 book exchanges. we swapped out 3 books for 2, had a beer and had the opportunity to join in a group sing of my beautiful farmers cay. after the sing along, mart, lily andi went for a walk and saw a woman putting a pin the tail on the donkey game on the side of her house. there was a happy birthday banner hanging by the window. d.j. was turning 3. we went back to the boat and i went through my stash of k id books. i chose 10, each one about animals and we went back to the party to deliver them. luckily the 11th child was only 3 months old and didn't know he didn't get his own. who knew out of 70 people there would be 11 kids?

and now we are in georgetown, the spot where many cruisers stop and spend the winter. this is as far south as they go. there is an amazing community of cruisers. seems like everyone knows everyone. we went to a pot luck last night.i i kind of overcompensated for our being the new kids and brought pepperont pizza, a big hit, banana bread with chocolate chips, which was a bigger hit. i did hear one comment that perhaps there weren't quite enough chips, and cantaloupe, which was a marginal hit. we met some nice peeps and as always, everyone helps to solve other people's boat problems.

not sure how long we will be in g'town, but you can be sure we will return to favorite spots and check out what we missed.