Sorry, Peeps, for the gap in blogging. Coms have been very poor recently. We have spent the last few days, including Christmas Day, sheltering in the lee of the uninhabited Shroud Cay, while a pretty extensive wind system is blown through from the east. We put out a second anchor to create a V-pattern, holding us from a couple of points, which made the motion of the boat a lot more comfortable and gives us a lot more holding power. The wind blew hard from Christmas Day all the way through until the 28th. In amongst the wind gusts we have had some really massive rainstorms and some lightning storms too, so lots of action. With no civilisation ashore and no wifi to entertain us, we have been enjoying reading, board games and trips ashore into the mangroves to see the turtles and to the deserted island beaches. We made a dinghy trip across the island runnels to Driftwood Beach in the east, and climbed the hill to Camp Driftwood (today's photo) which is now just a hill. This was built in the 60's by a singlehanded sailor who made the island his home, and then in the 70s was used by agents to spy on drug planes coming into Norman's Cay (to the north). We also met people on a couple of boats in the anchorage.

These periods of enforced downtime are quite a treat and something that you just never get at home. There are no other demands on your time and you just do what you want. G reads a lot. K always has craft projects and usually a couple of books on the go. And of course there's always Scrabble and cribbage.