Tuesday morning at 0630, as soon as the sun was up, we were underway.

We put the beautiful anchorage at Hattie Land on our list of places to return. However, we had no time to doddle as the weather was going to turn ugly.

We motored into a mild north wind into the Exuma Land & Sea Park. We had planned to take a mooring in Cambridge Cay, on our way north. With 40 knots of wind forecast for Thursday we were now seaking the protection as well as the beauty of this Cay.

With only a 20 mile run we thought that our chances of picking up one of the 14 moorings available was good.
All the moorings are on a first come first served basis.

Early in the morning there were all but three moorings available but as we got closer we could hear the radio calls from boats taking moorings. If they were all taken we could still anchor but in a much less protected anchorage area.

Keeping the RPM's up and thinking good thoughts we entered the mooring field to find 5 moorings left. At 1146 we grabbed a mooring, launched the dinghy and explored some of this beautiful Cay.

The boat that lost one of its mast shrouds has been with us since Lee Stocking. They are new to cruising and were a bit shook up by the whole thing, as we would be too. There buddy boat that they came to the Bahamas with took off and left them hanging, nice!

Looks like a big repair for them, maybe even back to the factory in St. Petersburg, Fl. They cant put too many sails up for now making a long motoring trip to the USA.

This morning, Wednesday, Jeff went to their spreaders and helped jury rig a running back stay. This along with the original stay, attached to a midship cleat, should help support the mast with a small sail up. They will still need to motor but a sail will help steady out the boat in a rolling sea.

More later,
US