Well, we're back in the good ol US of A. We left Green Turtle Cay Thursday morning and went 48 hours to Fernandina Florida. 48 hours almost to the minute. It was a great crossing. Lot's of boats left Green Turtle the day before us and went to Great Sale for the night then left Thursday morning. We left Green Turtle Thursday at 9:30 (had to wait for the tide to come up for us to leave) and sailed straight through to Fernandina. The boats that left from Great Sale got here about 2 hours before us. So we did OK. Looks like we will be here for a couple of days waiting for weather to go off shore. Thought about going up the ICW through Georgia but, with the full moon and spring tides this week the 7' tides will be 8'. We'll see what happens.

Margaret and Bill........

Howdy,
Been a long time between updates. We had a great time in Long Island.
We left Long Island Mar/14 and went straight to Black Point. 80 miles and averaged almost 8 knots. Spent a few days in Big Majors then headed for Emerald Rock at Warderick Wells for a few days. Had a great time there hiking and snorkeling. We then went to Highbourne Cay for a night and left the next morning for Royal Island. Terriffic day for traveling through the coral heads with lots of sun and calm conditions. One night in Royal and then onto Lynyard Cay. It was blowing 20 out of the SW with 7' seas but, they were on our stern quarter and we flew up to Little Harbour.
We are currently in Hope Town doing the beach and finding a suprisingly large amount of sea glass. Go figure!
We will start looking for a weather window to head over next week.
Talk to ya'll soon.
Love Margaret and Bill...

Howdy,

Back in Long Island after a great trip over to Conception.
The water there is "gin clear". As we were just about to jump off the boat to
snorkel a shark swam under the boat. Needless to say we waited until we could see it under the next boat then jumped in. Walked the beaches, snorkeled the reef and dingy'd the creek. We were pooped. We were entertained at night by a 250-300' mega yacht who had set up a 100yards of beach with a tented kitchen, grills, bar and dining area for these 7 guy's the eat. It was great fun as all of he anchored boats were facing the beach and they were facing the boats. All of the binoculars were out. No famous faces but entertaining n one the less. We have walked the beaches numerous times here in Long Island. Have been to Di's "secret spot" twice.
Went to see Dean's Blue hole (deepest in the world. William Turnbridge the world champion free diver was there practicing. Very nice guy. Got my picture with him. Spooky swimming over a 630' hole in the water. Very salty and cold. Met Penny and John (Dave and Beth's friends) They are a blast!!!
Tone's of glass and you don't have to move. 40-60 boats here. George Town is ramping up with over 300.
We will hang here and pop out to visit the others cays.
Talk later.
Margaret and Bill....

My last few postings have been sparse of detail so here goes.
We had a great crossing from Lynyard to Royal Island. We saw pilot whales again in the same spot we saw then 2 years ago. Tucked into Royal for the night then headed out early for the Flemming Channel and the route through the coral heads to Ships Channel Cay.
Anchored on the backside of Norman's for a few day's as a blow was coming. There were over 20 boats anchored in here. More then Dave and Beth had ever seen. We anchored near the sunken airplane that was used to bring drugs in for one of the big drug lords before shipping it into the US. Went to shore to look over his bullet hole riddled house when the DEA raided the place and shut him down. As the wind was out of the west for a few days we had a smooth dingy ride out the cut into the sound for more beach coming and into Norman's Pond. A few shallow draft boats in there for the frontal passage. After the blow passed we headed out the cut into the sound for a terrific 7+ knot sail down to Cambridge Cay and the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We skipped this spot 2 years ago and it is beautiful. We dingy'd around for days. Over to Rachael's, the caves, the sea aquarium reef (ton's of fish) , another sunken plane, lot's of beach walk's, a couple of saves of sailboats that went aground. I will say that the ladies won the Pepper card tournament of Cambridge. Dave says it was an anomaly. We had 10 terrific days in Cambridge but it was time to move on. We left Dave and Beth to their park warden duties and head to Black point for laundry. We went into Sampson Cay for fuel and water. Here we met Leslie (aka "Food") working the dock. Margaret got talking to him to discover that he spends 3 week a year in Raleigh as his sister lives there. He says that he's not that fond of the big city but, he like Wilson and Carolina BBQ. We then headed to Black Point. Ida was as friendly as always and we said hello for all of the North West Creek crowd. Hug to Di from Ida. After laundry, a burger at Lorraine's it was time to hit the beach. Lot's of glass in only a half hour. Dave hailed us in the afternoon he mentioned he heard chatter on the radio about ¼ mile visibility due to FOG. After Dave and I decided people here did not know what fog was and dismissed the report the FOG rolled in after 10 minutes. Boy did we eat crow! Luckily the FOG (yes I admit it now) was lifted in the morning and we headed out Dotham Cut and onto George Town for a few days to resupply. As the tide was starting to ebb we flew out the cut at 10 knots. We the Sound was calm and we had to motor but we made it by 3:00. Dropped the hook at Sand Dollar Beach and had a drink. We estimated about 150 boats in George Town. Still crowded in over at Volleyball Beach, Monument and Hamburger Beach. Some of the "regulars" that used to bunch in the channel between Chat and Chill and St Francis were upset because there are now moorings in there. We stayed George Town 9 days getting water, some grocery mostly fresh veggies, filled a propane tank and did internet. We met up with our Canadian buddies on the trawler Tortola. Great people from just north of Toronto. They asked if I would dive under there boat to check a thru hull one day only to discover that their anchor chain was rapped around a coral head. It was a one in a million shot as there are not that many coral heads in Sand Dollar. After scaring away a huge Lion fish sitting right on top of the head I dove down and upwrapped their chain. After a few attempts they were free. Had a few sundowners on Tortola after that, great people.
We left George Town and came over here to Long Island. It was only 36 miles and we anchored in Thompson's Bay. 21 boats had left GT the day before so there were more than we like but it's a huge anchorage and most don't go as close to shore as we do so it was good. Margaret and I have been to 5 beaches. Sonya, will be happy with the results.
We went over to Long Island Breeze and said hello to Mike. He remembered us and said he was very glad to see familiar faces. We will be going to his Super Bowl party Sunday. We stopped into the Thompson Bay club and said Hello to Trifina from the NWC boat's.
Hug to Bill on Hot Chocolate.
GA are headed this way today and we will be joining Beth to celebrate one of her "milestone" birthday's today.
Happy birthday Beth!!

Till next time.

Margaret and Bill.......

Been a long time between internet access. Since leaving Hope Town we have been to Lynyard (Pete's Pub), I think I remember! Crossed over to Royal Island. From Royal to Norman's for 3 night's waiting out a blow. Onto Cambridge for 10 days. Had a great time with Grateful Attitudes. Johnny Depp was on his yacht which we could see from the anchorage. All lit up at night. He had been there since Thanksgiving. We call shim JD now as he is a neighbor. We left Dave and Beth to their park duties and headed to Black Point for laundry. Next morning we headed out Dotham Cut (at 10 knots by the way) and came down to George Town to resupply before heading to Long Island.
We have had mostly great weather. Warm with the odd from but, life is good.

Till next time.

Margaret and Bill.......

It's been another fantastic week here in the Bahamas. We did some major exploring. We took the dingy down to Tahiti Beach, beautiful spot. Lives up to the name. It was low tide and we saw some nice star fish, about 16" across (see photo). The next day we went down to Sandy Cay and snorkeled in the Pelican Reef Land and Sea Park, best snorkeling yet. Some dive companies were there as well. Funny to see divers in full gear 10' below me in only my swim suit and snorkeling gear.
Margaret said she was happy to be in the dingy when a 4' Grouper swam right under the boat. It was fantastic. The fish were all much larger and were VERY friendly (ie CLOSE) They were used to being fed by the charter dive companies. Then it was back to Hope Town and time to take Margaret to the airport for her trip back to Canada for Christmas.
We stayed one night in the Conch Inn and had happy hour at Snappa's. Then long hot showers. What a treat! The taxi came to take Margaret to the airport at 6:15 and she was off. Her flights were good and she is in Kingston safely. I am bach'ing it for the next 9 days while the boss is away. I have been walking the beach to keep up Margaret's sea glass collecting. I haven't found much glass but, as it was rough on the ocean side today I did get a heart bean.
There was some excitement this morning as a distress call came in over the radio. It appeared no one could hear the transmission except me. So I relayed between the vessel in distress and BASRA (Bahamas Air and Sea Rescue). It was a 65 fishing boat out of the Dominican Republic. They were 45 miles off of the coast of Man Of War Cay and had run out of fuel. Long story short the RBDF (Royal Bahamas Defense Force) went out to help. There has been a lot of trouble lately (read; shooting at each other) between fishing boats from other countries and the local commercial tow companies did not want to risk it. Especially after the vessel in trouble told me there were 25 men on board. The local BASRA rep. came over in his boat from Marsh Harbour and thanked me for the help.
That's about it from here. Never a dull moment in the Bahamas.

Merry Christmas to all......

Till next time.

Bill..... love you sweety xoxoxo