Happy Valentines Day from Big Majors Spot - home of the swimming pigs. We had a very good 3-hour motor sail down from Warderick Wells this morning. Sandi and Steve (Princess) headed north, and Sapphire and Madcap, in company with many other boats headed south. There is yet another north wind blowing and we picked this anchorage to give us a bit of protection, tucked up on the west side of Big Majors Spot and just south of Fowl Cay. Perhaps there is a bit of protection, but the wind is still blowing and the water is choppy. On the other hand, the water temp is 30 C and the air is 27 C so what's a little wind?!

Jim made a trip to Staniel Cay while I stayed on board to bake a birthday cake. It was probably just as well there was only one person in the dinghy - we have a teeny little 5 hp motor and it does us just fine in flat water, but it goes slowly and "wetly" with two persons aboard in choppy water. He arrived back with frozen pork chops and a pound of hotdogs, a cucumber, some spinach, a couple of oranges and limes and a dozen eggs - and a pound of mediocre coffee. We think the choices will be better after the boat comes in on Monday.

We ran out of water last night and when I went to pull out my emergency jug from the cockpit locker, I discovered the jug had sprung a leak and there was just enough for a pot of morning caffeine. Speaking of caffeine - we ran out of coffee two days ago and have been drinking tea. I made a pot this morning and then realized I had used decaffeinated bags that I had on board for the Strathspey folks so I had to add a couple more bags to the same pot - since I didn't have any more water. It was potent but it did the wake-up job. Dinners the last few nights have been canned beef with peas n' rice, corned beef hash, pasta with stirfried "whatever was left in the produce bag" and a bit of chicken. We haven't come close to starving, but it's been pretty boring!

There must be 30 boats here in this anchorage - people all seem to head for the same spots. Jim dove on the anchor, shoved it down in the sand a little more, and we hope it holds - no room for dragging here. We haven't yet paid a visit to the beach but I've been watching dinghies pull up to be greeted by the pigs. I've seen 4 of them; 2 swim out in search of food while the others are content to wait till folks land. Apparently it is considered OK to feed compost scraps to them and they are very used to being fed and photographed.

We elected to celebrate Jim's birthday (and Valentine's Day) on board with a dinner of BBQ'd pork chops, squash, and spinach salad with a celebratory glass of champagne and chocolate cake for dessert. It was the first time in 25 years that there have been no children at the dinner table to toast their daddio, but the 2 of us had a very nice time looking back over past years and reviewing old memories.

Staniel Cay looks like a fine place to spend some time - the casual yacht club is full of patrons eating, drinking and doing email. Nurse sharks (harmless! harmless!) swim along under the pier, Internet is free and the sun is hot. We deposited one big bag of garbage, bought 25 gallons of water (40 cents per gallon), and ate a good lunch. This afternoon, we'll walk around town, check out the cottage we're renting for the family next week and then move down to Black Point Settlement to do laundry. We'll have lots more to tell you because we'll stay in the area for quite a while.