With the East wind blowing day after day at 18-20 knots and no sign of let up, we decided to beat our way to Conception Island anyway, knowing it would be a salty slog. We had never made it Conception last winter, and didn't want to miss it. The mainsail steadied us as Delfina motored into the building swells. As we passed by Stella Maris on Long Island we spotted our friends on Asana, traveling in the opposite direction, returning to Georgetown from Conception, and hailed them on the VHF to exchange greetings and plans. Shortly afterwards, we hooked a really big fish that we never even saw––it neatly snapped the line as Christoph worked to reel it in. We are now zero for 4.

As we sailed along the shore of Long Island, my BTC cell signal was strong enough for me to join Poetry Bones, my online poetry writing group. We worked with fractured proverbs as poetry prompts. Obsessed about our water maker, which had started blinking red along the way, my poem opened, "waste not the fresh water." At the time, I didn't realize how imperative this would become.

After 7 hours, we arrived at this breathtaking national park, one of half a dozen boats anchored in West Bay. Rather than launch the dinghy and walk the stretch of pristine beach, Christoph spent the next 2 hours troubleshooting the water maker. The brilliance of the the night sky erased all concern. We spent the evening watching the stars, hopeful that once Christoph replaced the seals and O-rings, the indicator light would blink green and the water would once again be potable. After breakfast, I helped Christoph put the membrane back in its housing, but the indicator light still blinked red. No potable water. We had about 40 gallons in the starboard tank, and implemented austerity measures, not knowing how long it would be before we could get a new membrane.

The healthy coral heads that rim the island offer outstanding opportunities for snorkeling. The surf was a bit rough, but we snorkeled at the northwest edge of the bay, where two brown boobies stood guard, and swam around the point to snorkel the seemingly endless lines of coral heads. Still in our wetsuits, we took our dinghy through the winding, mangrove-lined creek at the South end of the island, accessible only at high tide, to see the turtle spawning grounds. Green turtles darted past the dinghy at lightning speed, occasionally raising their heads above the surface to take a quick breath.We had the sense of moving through the primeval landscape in pre-historic time. When we returned to Delfina, lemon sharks greeted us.

With our limited water supply, we felt constrained to curtail our time at Conception, and headed out for Long Island this morning, where we hoped to arrange for delivery of new membrane. What began as a thrilling downwind sail at 7.5 knots, surfing the swells, turned into several hours of beating into wind gusts of 28 knots once we made out turn onto the banks along the shore. We were met with good news upon our arrival: the distributor in Nassau was able to get our new membrane onto tomorrow's mail boat, which means we can pick it up at Seafarer Marine on Thursday morning. Relieved, we headed to the Cruiser's Beach for a meet and greet at 16:00 and got to know some of our fellow boaters in this huge bay. Best of all, we made plans to see Shari and James, friends who live on the island. We'll join them at the Washington tomorrow night, where they'll be helping out while owner Darron recuperates from a stroke.