March 22 to April 1
We wound up spending 3 weeks in Georgetown, Exumas. The weather here was great and the "northers" settled down, so the anchoring was smooth. There were several days though when a dinghy ride to town was out of the question. We have been seriously researching buying a bigger dinghy motor. They still sell 2 stroke motors here and they are much cheaper and lighter, plus no tax!
We finally received our replacement SSB receiver and Hallejulah IT WORKS!! We immediately left town for Long Island (not NY); we had to motor the whole way but it was beautiful. Twenty feet deep and we were taking pictures of the starfish on the bottom!
Long Island has been our favorite place so far. We went to the Anglican Church on Palm Sunday and met so many people. The islanders, black and white, are very enthusiastic worshippers. The sign of peace involve hugging everyone in the church. Between that and the priest's thunderous sermon, mass took almost 2 hours. But next day when we went shopping, we saw our new friends working in town and had something to share.
We shared a car with Brenda and Glen from Young at Heart and saw so much. Started with lunch at Max's Conch Shack where the owner had just found a conch pearl worth $7,500!! It was opaque coral in color and an oval shape; very pretty. Met a neat couple who were scouting out property for an artists' retreat. She is a silversmith/jeweler and he is a musician. We plan on visiting them near Washington on our way home.
There is a famous Bahamian called Father Jerome; he started life as an architect, became an Anglican priest, then converted to a Catholic priest. We visited 2 churches he built on opposite hills in Clarence Town. After touring the Catholic Church we waved to a man in the office. He came out to greet us and I said, "You're an American" to which he replied, "Yes, I'm from Providence, RI". Jeff and I cracked up! Turns out he is close friends with Jacques Plante, our pastor in Providence. What a small world. On top of that, there was a gorgeous 60 foot, navy sloop in the harbor; it belongs to St. George's School in Middletown, RI.
Next morning we continued our tour by driving the worst road any of us had been on, up to the Columbus Monument. The view was unbelievable; I wonder how Chris didn't crash on the rocky, reef ringed shore. Then we visited a sheep farm with artist's studio. ( Everyone here has at least 2 jobs.)
Turns out these were the folks Fr. Doug had hooked us up with for Easter Mass. We chatted for the entire 40 minute drive to and from church. The Catholics were more reserved than the Anglicans, but still very huggy!
There were 2 beach parties organized by cruisers where we met lots of nice people and gathered great info about other locales and boat stuff in general. The nearby resort also had Happy Hour on Fridays which we attended twice; I even learned how to weave a coconut palm basket!! Attended the local fundraising fish fry, walked to 2 different ocean beaches, and just had a ball.


April 1 to April 4

Four boats had been friendly at Thompson Bay and we took off together for Conception Island. It is an uninhabited nature preserve. Someone thought we looked like ducklings trailing mama duck and from then on we hailed each other on the radio as "ducks in a row". Had a gorgeous SAIL to the anchorage. We beach walked, hunted for sea beans, swam and snorkeled. That night we had a fabulous pot luck on Meltemi. MMMM good. The next day the dinghy's took off for the turtle nursery in a giant mangrove. We saw dozens of young green turtles and a small reef shark. The baby turtles were shy, of course, and they were FAST!! Just a beautiful experience. Some of us snorkeled and found a dozen giant conch, but we voted to leave them be since it was a nature preserve. Squalls were predicted for the next evening so we took off for Cat Island.
April 4 to April 7
Getting four captains to agree about where to shelter for the night was pretty interesting! We had the usual assortment of one very conservative guy, one who trusted his skills and equipment, one novice who would follow the majority and one who wouldn't take a stance! I'll let you guess where Jeff placed!
Naturally, after all this debate, worry and radio-ing, there were no squalls! We walked up the highest point in the Bahamas, 206 ft above sea level, to visit the Hermitage. It was built by Fr. Jerome as his monastery/retreat/retirement home. Thing is, he started building it at age 60, alone, on a hill made of "ironstone", a hard, craggy limestone. Pretty amazing and quite beautiful. Jeff and I walked thru the village, actually, they are called settlements, and met Lula. She ran a beach shack where she served meals cooked over a wood fire and also baked pies. As a single mother, she supported 3 kids to become a policeman in Nassau, a schoolteacher, and her last is in law school. AMAZING!! We sat around a homemade picnic table watching her cook, chatting and drinking a cold Kalik. The chicken was fantastic and she made the best peas and rice we've had so far. Of course, her secret ingredient is lots of oil!!

April 7
We said goodbye to one of the ducks--Spartina with Phil and Sarah on board. Sarah had been our resident marine biologist plus long time Bahamas cruiser, so we learned a lot from her. We will be seeing them this summer at there home near St. Michael's, MD. The rest of us took off for Little San Salvador. I wasn't expecting much, as we'd been told the island had been taken over by Carnival Cruises, as their "private" island. Well, it was actually very beautiful and since there was no ship in, we had the run of the place. For anyone who isn't fortunate enough to do what we're doing, it sure would be a terrific stop on a cruise. The sand was like powdered sugar, the water a perfect teal green and thee were colorful cabanas, lots of rest room, showers, walking paths, horseback riding and more. Really lovely. In the morning a ship did arrive and we saw the tourists arriving on the tenders. We took off for Eleuthera and a harbor called Rock Sound (scary huh?)

April 7 to April 11
Well, Rock Sound is totally sandy but it is shoal, so you do need to be careful. Now we are down to us and Indian Summer, a couple who've only been sailing for 6 months. Eleuthera is a very long island and there are lots of settlements, so we opted to rent a car again.