Oh what a difference a few degrees of latitude makes. Our friends were supposed to fly out of Ottawa on Saturday and join us in Staniel Cay on Sunday. Because of the huge storm (bringing Ottawa's total up to well over 300 cm this winter) they are still there and we are in Sampson's Cay. We're keeping our fingers crossed that they can get here in a day or two.

When we left White Point, the plan was to go straight to Staniel Cay, but we were getting low on both diesel and gas and the Marina announced on VHF radio that they were out and wouldn't have more until sometime next week. So - we decided to go a bit further north to Sampson's Cay where they still had a supply. The rumour we heard was that the fuel boat ran aground - don't know if that is the truth or not. When we got here, there were 3 huge boats tied up and the gas was pouring into one of them. Jim was worried that there might not be enough left for our little jerry cans but they had a good supply.

Sampson's Cay has a stunning little marina. Great long fuel dock and room for boats well over one hundred feet in the first bay, and then more docks are through a little channel and around the corner. The store is small but well stocked and the restaurant serves economically priced breakfast and lunch, and elegant and pricey dinners at night. We anchored in the bay - 3 times in 3 places (because of tide and swinging with wind shifts) and have been happy to be here.

The marina charges $2.25 per foot per night. The anchorage is free. A mega ship is tied up at the dock - 164 feet long, 3 stories high, staff of 7 or 8. We heard that it burns about 480 gallons of fuel per hour. We burn half a gallon - if the engine is on. We are both here in the same bay with the same view; same services available to us. Pretty nice!!

We ate a company dinner without the company - curried lobster over rice with one of our new bottles of white wine. Absolutely delicious! See the book, "Embarrassment of Mangos" for the recipe. (I have tried many of Ann Vanderhoof's recipes from that book and have liked them all - good narrative too!)

About the multiple anchorings: the tidal drop in the corner we chose was more than we figured so at low tide we started to bounce off the sand. We moved. During the evening, the wind clocked around exactly as had been predicted and we swung in a wide arc. We had dropped the hook quite far off the shoreline to keep our stern clear of the rocks, which meant that with 90 feet of chain out, we ended up more than180 feet across the bay and with the stern facing the docks, after the wind shifted from S to N. In order to clear the channel we up anchored and moved again just after dawn. Good thing we were the only boat here! The wind is supposed to stay NNE tonight so we shouldn't have any trouble with the 2 boats that have joined us today.

Jim and I took a lovely walk this morning - in and out through beautifully groomed paths and along the shoreline. We chatted with Sue and Ole (Southern Toy) - and that man is a born storyteller! and Ann (Aurora) and enjoyed Eggs Benedict in the restaurant. The afternoon was for working - Jim installed the new starting battery and hallelujah! It worked. Now we'll see if it holds the charge any better than the old one. I sat myself down to do some serious updating of the website.

A note about that website - I'll try to get information up more often. Jim's computer has a little malfunction and he can't connect with winlink to update our position reports. Neither can he receive any e-mails at the winlink address. If you've been wondering why he has not replied to any you've sent there and if you've been wondering why it doesn't look like we've moved, that's the explanation.

Marg Stubington in Ottawa took the pic above. Thanks, Marg U. for sending it! We picked a good year to be away.

We decided to stay here again tonight since the wind is still strong and we really like this little bay. We're off to Staniel Cay in the morning to pick up the replacement parts for our head (aka toilet) that were flown in by Watermakers Air. With any luck we'll also pick up our guests soon too! Fingers crossed!! More lobster waiting!