Florida to St John

Well, it turns out that my satellite phone, with care and luck, can act as a very slow wifi hotspot.... but I find I don't get around to it while sailing.... perhaps I will try again and will see if I can break my slothful ways.

A few hours ago we left Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island, Bahamas (essentially the NE corner of the Bahamas) and are heading nearly south toward Georgetown, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas. We SHOULD arrive Monday morning and the weather is forecast to be gray, but pleasantly sailable, without the high winds and heavy rains we enjoyed this last week and forecast to continue for another week or so.

A fellow boater, Stu, dinghied over to our boat yeterday morning to let us know that one of our loved ones had reported concerns about us to the coast guard (I had been sending location updates to the wrong email!), so we contacted the coast guard etc to provide assurances. Stu then helped us get our footing in this strange land, getting us to a grocery store, a place to get s spark plug as a test for my outboard, and a phone store where my spare phone became my Bahamas phone, so now I can check email, make calls (even to the USA!), and hit the web for advice on how to deal with my annoying outboard. Apparently this particular one has a lot of reported problems, mostly with the fuel system.

The entire harbor is tremendously shallow and, trusting a local guide trying to bring us to a slip, we ran aground once or twice, but the bottom is mud and we kept speed low. Finally we gave up on the marina and simply anchored, finding that even so we were slightly aground at low tide.

That's all for now. Cynthia is suffering under these gray skies, cool winds (too cool to swim), and no lionfish hunting