Puff made it to the Bahamas. A good Irish friend said that God looks after fools and drunks and we made it - not sure which or both. After sitting around Ft Lauderdale for 4 days helping George on his boat, Marcia and Jim Keenan dingied over and said "hear you are going to the Bahamas, you want company?" Wow! Keenan's in their 38 foot Prout Catamaran and also Griff and Audrey Griffen in their 38 ft Island Packet. What company.

George and I partied Monday night and refinished his instrument panel and installed the wiring for the replacement depth and speed indicator. By the time I had made a sandwich for lunch the next day and gotten things ready it was midnight.

We raised anchor at 3:45 and left Ft Lauderdale. The winds that night had let up but were still from the East at 10-15 knots. That left 4-6 foot swells coming in the Ft Lauderdale inlet. A lot of up and down. By the time we got out to the Gulf Stream it calmed down to 3-4 ft. But by that time my stomach said this rocking and rolling was too much. The next 3 hours were spent concentrating on the Ft Lauderdale horizon to keep what I could in my stomach. Once the sun came up and I could see the horizon, things were better.

It got calmer as we crossed and by the time we got to the Bahamas it was 1 - 2 ft chop at most. The Keenans and Griffiths kept check on Puff the whole way even though they got their much earlier. Although, when we had a decent wind, Puff did a fine job of keeping up with the big boys. But about 9 hours of the trip were without sail since, as usual, the wind was on the nose.
Roger and Kaye Tollerud, friends from Minot, ND, say there is old Indian saying about Wind on Nose. However with the Olie and Leena jokes we used to tell, any Wind on Nose storey is probably best left unsaid.

Spend the night docked at Old Bahama Bay resort at West End. Very nice place but pricey. Left at 11 am for Mangrove Cay in the middle of the Little Bahama Banks. The Banks are sort of like Charlotte Harbor. Only 6 to 15 feet deep but the water is crystal clear. The colors are beautiful and I cruised for 6 hours out of the site of land for 3 hours and saw no one. Needless to say my tan is improving. Arrived at Mangrove Cay and there were four sailboats and 5 powerboats. Fairly strong winds kept us bouncing all night.

Thursday we sailed off the anchor and ran downwind at 6+ knots the 21 miles to Great Sale Cay. It was a missile tracking station at one time but nothing but mangroves now. On the way, Pete Graham on the trawler Gitana passed and took the photos of Puff under sail. Jim and Marcia Keenan made it in later in the day in the Magnificat. Great Sale has a very protected anchorage, which was nice as a cold front pushed through at 02:30, and it rained and blew. Two good-sized powerboats dragged anchor and ended up aground. One was right next to me and I was lucky that the wind direction blew him by instead of into us.

Friday was mapping day and trying to figure out what the weather will allow. Weather is one constraint and getting to an island with a phone to check in with Karen is another. Think I'll head to Foxtown to make the call and then retrace the route a bit to see some of the cays that border the Atlantic. But first I want to talk to Pete & Claudia Hornby on the Nimue III who just came up that way. Friday night was windy again with gusts up in the 25-30 knot range. Saturday, April 8th, dawned clear but too windy to head out. Explored Great Sale, nothing to see but the concrete slab from an abandoned missile tracking station. Many of the islands had them back in the late 50's early 60's when the Eastern Test Range was very active and radar and telemetry data more difficult to collect. Thanks to Keenan's I was able to leave Karen a message using Keenan's satellite phone.

The 9th was a much nicer day. Was able to sail most of the way from Great Sale to Foxtown. Sorry to say not much of a town. Since it was Easter, the only thing open was a gas station and a bar. Found a Batelco (Bahamas Telephone Company) phone and used a Batelco phone card I had purchased in West End to call Karen.

Karen had just gotten back from Providence, RI due to the death of my step-dad. Carl David Brell. The great wife that she is, Karen knew I would want to go and since she had no way of contacting me, she went instead. Carl, you are in a better place with two wonderful wives, Alice and Doris, who cleared the trail for you. Deepest sympathy to David and Mary Jane on the passing of your dad. I also called our son Dean to say Happy Birthday to our grandson Alex since I missed calling him on his birthday. A child of the cellular generation, I don't think Alex understands not having a phone you can just pick up and use.

Spent the 10th fishing off Moraine Cay and then exploring Allans-Pensacola Cay. Moraine is very small but had a few cute fish camps on it. I wouldn't want to live there but a week in a cabin would be fun. Allans was even more fun. It was two separate cays that silted together after a storm??"thus the name. It too had been a tracking station and there is a concrete obelisk in just off a beautiful beach on the ocean side. It is about 1/8th mile from the "sign tree," a group of trees that visitors to this uninhabited island have decorated with signs made mostly from debris. I took a plank back to the boat and made a sign that I hung on the 11th before leaving. It was fun reading signs from others who had been there including folks I had met earlier at Great Sale and folks from Punta Gorda.

Weather again reared it's head and we found a protected anchorage at Crab Cay at the joint where Little and Great Abaco Islands touch. It is different than the Crab Cay off Powell Cay. A cold front pushed through about 1 AM with south winds gusting to 30 and heavy rains and lots of lightning. Then it let up and winds came around to the west and dropped off. But in the morning it was howling at 20 to 25 from the south again. Too windy to sail and since we are headed southeast down the cays, it made sense to stay there until the winds let up.

Getting reliable weather is vital and the best source once you are in the Bahamas is Chris Parker who resides on his boat Bel Ami. You can buy forecasts and planning weather data from him and receive it by email, satellite or high frequency radio. If you are cheap, you buy a portable high frequency radio that has single side band capability and listen in on the static filled airwaves each morning. He has been right on except he said the winds would die right after the front passed. He is forecasting another front on Saturday so I need to find another safe spot to hide out??"probably Green Turtle Cay.

The 12th was a short sail after the wind let up in the afternoon. Just 6 miles to Coopers Town to get to a phone to call Karen, David, and left a message for Mary Jane. The town is strictly Bahamas, no tourist haunts. Everyone looks at you like you are lost. Which of course is true as you ask for the Batelco phone and then buy two Kalik beers to make the owner feel better for helping.

The 13th was beautiful and made even better by the nicest beach so far on Nunjack Cay. It wasn't deserted but only two other groups were on the beach in the morning while I was there. We stayed at opposite ends of the 1.5 mile long pure white beach. With the Bahama blue waters hitting the white beach as you can see it is a sight. Wow. Probably stay here tomorrow also since the weekend it is going to blow and I'll probably need to stay at a marina or mooring at Green Turtle Cay.

Evening of the 13th meet up with the Keenan's again and ended up anchoring in a shallow cove off White Sound in Green Turtle. The morning of the 14th they departed for Treasure Cay to hold up for the bad weather coming while I went across the harbor and rented a slip at the Bluff House Yacht Club. They have wireless access if your boat faces the right way??"it does.

Bad storm predicted for tomorrow with gusts to 50 according to some sources. The Bahama sources say less??"chamber of commerce forecasts. Then a few days of strong NW winds or maybe another small front on the 16th. But the good news is that they are forecasting "normal" weather conditions starting next Saturday while Karen is visiting.

We hope to get to some of the out islands on the four days she has to visit. Man of War, Elbow and Tilloo Cays may be on our list. I wish I could bring her up to Nunjack but if the weather turned, we couldn't make it back. We'll see when she gets here.