I got word last night that the original chart plotter, the one that we had to replace at the start of the trip, is on the way to Florida where Darren will pick it up and bring it over for Monday. Hurrah! I'm sure that it'll cost a fortune in courier charges but I really want the damn thing in my hands and installed on the boat. It turns out that I had to have words with Standard Horizon about the other one. Apparently they wouldn't replace the defunct one until they had it in their hands. How's that for product support? Oh, I understand that they need to be sure that it wasn't misused or anything but surely since their competitor's hardware survived whatever caused the problem, shouldn't a UPS tracking number suffice to prove that I wasn't trying to get a free plotter for nothing?

The wind began to pick up yesterday evening and howled and gusted throughout the night with wind generator alternating (how's that for a pun?) between 0 and 7 amps. It is really interesting to watch the other boats in a mooring field like this on in which the moorings are placed as closely as possible but also have surprisingly long chains from the mooring itself to the ball on the surface. Some boats, like Nelleke, will ride facing directly into the wind and stay true to whatever direction it blows from especially if you have managed to pick up both bridles and run them to the fairleads on either side of the head stay. Others, in particular the powerboats, will tack back and forth, back and forth across the wind line constantly, coming within feet of other boats that may be doing the same thing only on an opposite tack on either side of them. I don't think that I'd sleep a wink all night if Nelleke was prone to doing that. In fact, there was one boat, a Passages 42 registered in New Zealand, lying to a mooring just to the NW of us whose mooring is a little closer to the docks and when the wind came about to the SW last night I was watching her come within feet of a large powerboat that had been tied up on the T-dock just behind her. When the ferry came in this morning to bring some of the workers to their jobs it had to alter course and head out into the mooring field to get around it. Oh well. I guess they're used to that sort of thing here. We heard yesterday that during one of the recent hurricanes they didn't lose a single boat in this mooring field which speaks well for the site as a hurricane hole with all round shelter and for the quality of the moorings. During one of the 25 knot gusts I took a look at the chain on our mooring and the cantilever hadn't even stretched out of it! That's a pretty heavy mooring chain!

This morning after walking Peri and letting Darren Sands know that the replacement chart plotter will be delivered to his Florida address sometime today Barb and I went to shore to do some banking, i.e. withdraw money. There used to be two banks in town but the RBC branch closed leaving only First Caribbean International and their one day a week from 10-2 on Wednesday office hours. We went an hour early to make sure that we got in at the head of the line and while I was waiting Barb went off in search of the bakery which she eventually found in someone's kitchen and bought a pizza tray of cinnamon rolls a nice loaf of white bread, and five lobster tails. As for the banking it would take a definite shift in gears for me personally to get used to only being able to do banking once a week and then only for four hours, that is, assuming that the bank staff don't take a lunch break.

We bought some material that is made on Andros Island and is called Androsia. It is a series of wonderful batik patterns that are reminiscent of the islands. Barb got a little over a yard each of heavy and light material, the former in a sort of turquoise and the latter in a pale blue. The jury is out on what she will be making with it.

We treated ourselves to lunch at the Dock n' Dine restaurant, Barb had a Bahamian Fish Wrap and I had Fish Fingers. Both were excellent and we have finagled the recipe out of them and I will include it in the cookbook.

The wind has picked up significantly and is now somewhere at 30 knots. I am looking out of the porthole at the palm trees all straining downwind and Nelleke is bouncing a bit at the wind induced current and waves. Every once in a while some fool passes us in the mooring field heading out to sea. Even the locals are calling it "rough and sloppy" and advising everyone to stay home. The next few days will be "varied" to say the least, ranging from sunny and calm to high winds, small craft warnings, and thunderstorms. Wheeee!

Late in the afternoon we met up with our friends Ron and Pye and had a wonderful time walking on the beach looking for their British boating pals Pat and Simon (Pat is the feminine) and after finding them we repaired back to Nelleke for Rum and cheese, a much more "island" version of wine and cheese. We have made plans for a trip to Marsh Harbour via the ferry, over to Tradewinds with the Talleys on Friday for cocktails and dinner, and a day at the fair on Saturday.

The Bahamas is a wonderful country. So far every place that we have been has become our new favourite.