Sandbox led the way out of the anchorage at Pirate's beach as we set sail for Oven Rock. We had decided to move a little further south to stage for our jump back over to Cat Island on Sunday. The sailing conditions weren't quite what we expected as the SE winds increased to over 20 knots creating short steep waves to battle against. However, under reefed main and Genoa we beat our way to Oven Rock and dug into a fairly calm anchorage in time to go check out the beach. The main attraction here are the caves on the top of ridge line, the entrance is at least 60' after the ocean, however, the caves are full of water. The guide book says you can tank dive with a guide and one cave is 500' deep. Needless to say we passed on that option. We bid farewell to Sandbox over sundowners since they are staying in the Exumas for now but we hope to meet up with them in the Abacos.

After one last check of the forecast we were on our way at 7.00 a.m. Sunday for our 60 mile trip to Cat Island. The first step was to exit the bank at Galiot Cut; we were fighting a flood tide but since it was with the 10 knot breeze there was minimal chop in the cut. Common practice is to have at least one sail up while motoring through a cut in case of engine problems. Once safely through we rolled out the Genoa and set course for Cat Island. I had anticipated that we would have to motor sail part of the way as the forecast called for dying winds. Fortunately, for us, this was not the case as we sailed close hauled all day in 12-18 knots with 2-4 foot seas. As the wind increased a little we reefed the main for a couple of hours as Otto worked tirelessly all day keeping us on course. When we crossed onto the bank the waves and wind dropped. We normally would have shaken out the reef to keep our speed up but with only 7 miles to go we had to reef the Genoa way in and slow the boat down more so Bev would have time to clean the Mahi Mahi that she caught. That's right, another fresh fish dinner at Cat Island.

Once the fish was cleaned and the cockpit washed out we proceeded to Fernandez Bay and dropped the hook at 5p.m. As we settled in for the evening we had an unobstructed view of the sunset and low and behold we finally saw our first green flash ever! I must admit I was starting to wonder if they really existed or did they belong with stories from the North Pole. But now I am a believer, another perfect end to a great day.

Today's picture is of me keeping on eye on Otto doing his thing.