We left Marsh Harbour on Wednesday afternoon with a 15 knots right on our butt. We sailed wing on wing (Jib to starboard, Main to port) amongs the shallows by Elbow Cay in less then 6 feet of water. We did not follow the charts close enough and had to back track a bit to avoid running aground. We made it to Little Harbour by dinner time. We went on a small excursion to the beach and some nice people from Papi, a Fontaine Pajot catamaran taught us how to harvest conch. The bay was littered with big ones. We collected a couple of harvested one for nice horns, which are use to wish to sun good night at sunset. The kids are having fun practicing their trumpet like blow on the conch horn. We also decided to try a live one and boiled it until it came out. We can't wait to try conch ceviche.
On Thursday morning, we left early to make the passage through the Northeast Providence Channel to Nassau. We arrive just in time for sunset. We had a nice sail again mostly wing on wing speeding up to 10 knots.
On Friday, we came to Nassau Harbour Club Marina to meet with Dirk and Thomas. We stayed at the Marina and took advantage of the water. Our water tanks needed a full scrub down. We noticed after crossing the Gulf Stream in the big waves that things got churned up and we did not like the colour of the water. Time to take to caulking out and see what has been growing in there for the last 9 years...
Nice to have fresh water!

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Sunday morning, we left Green Turtle Cay and traveled south to Great Guana Cay. We sailed through Whale Cay passage without to much too much excitement. We had turn back the day before , the sea conditions were creating some breaking waves over the shallow area. Simi met a friend Tobi who traveled with us while his parents on "Windswept" a Whitby 42 followed closely to the anchorage. Soon upon arrival to the south end of Great Guana, we got our snorkeling gear and headed for the reef. We saw some big rays and meter needle fish. We made it back to the boat for dinner and chess.
Today (Monday), we had Windswept over for some computer lessons...Rich was able to download the Nobeltec program that cousin Jean-Pierre copied for us. We will have fun in the next few days experimenting with it. In the afternoon, the wind direction changed and we decided that it would be better to make it to Marsh Harbour where the anchorage would be more protected. We left Guana just in time to get rained on. We arrive at Marsh Harbour and dinghied over to shore and strolled down main street. We made it back to the boat to organize dinner.

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We arrived in the Bahamas after a 2 overnight sail from St-Augustine. We left sunny Florida on Friday afternoon, the bridge of Lions bid us farewell at 1500hrs. The seas were fairly calm and the winds not too strong. We had a good sail but ended up doing some motoring during the first night. Soon after sunrise we decided that if we wanted to cross the Gulf Stream, we needed to do it in the next 24 hours or else wait it out in beautiful southern Florida... so we crossed, the unusual way! From Cape Carnaveral across to the Abacos. The current was strong and sometimes wonder if we were making any head way but after a long night and a rainy morning in the middle of nowhere north of the Bahamas, we arrived. Land-ho, the kids were happy to say! We have some friends from St-Augustine that joined us for the crossing and it made it easier on John and I. A bit more sleep always helps. We came through Powell Cay Channel with a bit of apprehension as there are quite a few breakers on either side and then continued south to Nunjack Cay where we anchored. The boys were soon swimming around the boat while I prepared our first dinner in the tropics. We had a beautiful night at anchor.
The next morning we snorkeled and kayaked and played in the water. We then had to make it to the Customs office to make our entrance official. We continued south to Green Turtle cay for customs. We anchored in White sound. That night was horrible. I woke John up at around 0200. The wind had picked up 30-35+ knots. There were several boats in the anchorage that had problems with their anchors and some boats actually played bumpercars...not a pretty scene. Fortunately we were out on the outskirts and away from the crashes though the mangroves were a bit too close for comfort and the depth read 1.2 feet under the boat. We kept watch all night... we moved the next morning in a bit more water 2.5 feet under the boat. it will tke some time to get used to the shallowness of this boaters' paradise.

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