When I first left on this journey, I wrote a blog post every 2-3 days. But now that I am in the Bahamas, things have slowed down - which, I guess, is the point of being in the Bahamas. However, it also seems that time slips by and you loose track. I have found it very easy to sit in the cockpit, and do nothing except look around.

Here's what has happened since I made my last post over a week ago:

After some relaxing days anchored in 10 ft of clear water off the beach on Whales Cay, Faith Afloat and I sailed around the east side of the Berry Islands to Little Harbor Cay. Seas were moderate - 3-4 ft, and this was our first time going thru a 'cut' between islands. Recall in my last post I mentioned about 'rages'. Our passage was a bit exciting, with waves coming from all angles and buffeting Grace as we went thru - but uneventful. We found a good anchorage off Cabbage Cay, right next to Little Harbor Cay. Being tired of our own cooking, we dinghied in and had dinner at Flo's Place, also called Flo's Conch Bar - a nice dinner primarily of conch, rice&peas, and very-easy-to-drink-but-potent rum punch.

The next day I found a perfect beach - a 400 ft crescent of soft white sand, with a rocky outcrop covered with sea grape and Australian pine trees at one end, and palm trees in back of the beach. There was no one else there so this was my private beach. Sadly, no pictures because I had taken my sketch pad instead.

We spend two full days - 3 nights here. We found a very shallow area that was frequented by sea turtles, and tried unsuccessfully to hike up to the highest point on Little Harbor Cay - 72 ft above sea level..

Faith Afloat and I next moved up to Hoffman's Cay, finding an anchorage behind Devil's Cay, south of Hoffman's Cay. A bit more exciting going thru this cut, as the water shoals from 25 ft deep to around 6 ft very rapidly. I had current pushing me in and breaking waves around me as I motored thru.

Hoffman's Cay has a blue hole in it, which Tom, Luke and I hiked up to. (pictures in the photo gallery). A blue hole is where a cave has collapsed, and the result is a fairly circular and very deep lake, connected underground to the ocean. The Hoffman's Cay blue hole, while very large and impressive, was not very blue, and not at all tempting to swim in.

Tuesday, after one night at Devil's Cay, we started to head south again. Great sail in 3 ft swells and 10 kt winds from the east. We spent a night anchored off Bird Cay, in a spot where we could avoid those 3 ft seas while we spent the night. Some anchorages are very susceptible to swells and as a result the boat will rock and roll all night long.

Wednesday, we had a long motor in very light winds to Nassau, where I am now at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina (much less impressive place than it sounds, as I think it's heyday was about 30 years ago). Nassau is a good size city with about 75% of the entire population of the Bahamas. I was meeting my two sons who flew in on Friday, plus some critical boat projects (fixing a leak in my water lift muffler, replacing the macerator pump - which pumps out the holding tank, which is connected to the toilet... need I say more?), plus sitting out a 5 day blow with winds over 30 kts and 8-11 ft seas. Nassau is also a good place to provision as it has good grocery stores.

My two sons and I spent yesterday exploring Nassau on rented motor scooters. (I'll upload pictures of this at a later date) Today, we'll do that provisioning, plus maybe go to the Straw Market. Tomorrow we head down to the northern Exuma island chain. A week from now we'll be back here so that my oldest son can fly back to Boston, and my younger son and I can watch the Super Bowl.