My sister sent a message the other day. She deduced from reading the various cruising blogs that, this time of year, some of us are like horses bolting for home and others are like her labrador retrievers who want to roll in the mud and sniff every bush before they must finally come in. (perhaps we could say we want to swim off every beach and check out every anchorage)

Accordingly, we spent a couple of nights at Manjack, moved on to Powell Cay and are now anchored just off Spanish Cay. We enjoyed swimming and snorkelling in 31C water, strolled along beaches on ocean and banks sides of Powell Cay, interacted with the gregarious laughing gull that perched on our dinghy davit and on the swim ladder for the longest time during happy hour.

There was not a sound except frilly little wavelets lapping against the dinghy last evening as we sat out once again under the stars. The sun came up over mirror-still water this morning and has remained light.

We've stopped here in Spanish Cay to refill water cans and check on the progress of our energy boosting arrangements in Florida. Several of our friends decided to leave today in hopes of reaching Florida before the front blows in on Friday. For us, it would mean an abrupt end to this last leisurely week so we've decided to wait for the window that surely must open after this one.

The marina staff is friendly and helpful; the store is well stocked; wifi is easily available for $10 for 24 hours; and the anchorage is just a short dinghy ride away from the marina entrance, making Spanish Cay a good stop. We'd consider it on a return visit too - it's a check in point with Customs and Immigration officers.

We'll move up the cays one more step to rejoin Sapphire and Solitaire at Allens-Pennisicola this evening. We are keeping a close ear on Chris Parker's weather forecasts at 6:30 each morning and expect that we'll be able to start off early next week. He is calling for westerly quadrant winds - not so good - but with some south in them at this latitude - maybe not so bad.

Each day is a new one and if our combo of planning and luck continues to hold, by the time we get to our preferred jumping off point of Double Breasted Cays, the wind will be good too.