We set off today in beautiful weather and the hopes that it would remain so for the next 24 hours. Great Harbour Cay Marina is a very nice place and if we come back there we will definitely be staying there for a day or perhaps two. Our plan is to head for North Rock to the north end of Bimini and then across to Port Everglades, the harbour for Fort Lauderdale, to clear customs. We have discovered that we will need to call in when we get to the US to ask whether or not they want to see us or if they will just let us back in on the original cruising permit. We have never cruised the ICW south of Palm Beach so this will be a new experience for us. Our friends, Eric and Cori aboard Further have written in their blog about how obviously well heeled everything is there so we'll have to make sure that we keep our hands in our pockets as much as possible to regain some control of the cruising budget.

What can I say? The crossing from the Berrys to the Biminis was pretty much perfect. We could have done with slightly more wind and more on our beam, true, but beggars can't be choosers. As it was we enjoyed a sunny, warm, cloudless sky even if we did have to run Paula Perkins the whole day. As we were leaving Great Harbour Cay it struck me again how low lying the archipelago of the Bahamas is. A one hundred foot tall hill is a mountain in this country and once you are ten miles away from one of the islands or cays they may as well not be there. I wonder how many early explorers passed them by, not even realizing that they were there?

As I sit here and write this, I was counting on my fingers and toes and realized that we have been in the Bahamas for less than 40 days, we have seen Grand Bahama Island from the West End to Freeport, Great Sale Cay, the Abacos including Green Turtle Cay, Guana Cay, Man-o-War Cay, Hope Town and Little Harbour, and Cherokee Settlement on Abacos Island and had a tiny look at Great Harbour Cay in teh Berrys, and that's it! That is only a fraction of the country so there is much, much more for us to visit and see. Next year, perhaps? Only, then we will come south in Florida to Miami or even Marathon and head over to Bimini and the Berrys and then to Andros, New Providence and the Eluthras, to say nothing of the Exumas.

As we motor sailed across the Great Bahama Bank in 40 to 60 feet of water I can never cease to be amazed at the sight of the bottom below us as we pass. Granted I can't make out details but at home I wouldn't be able to see anything. In fact if you can see bottom it is only just because you are about to hit something, but here it is life as normal. There must be thousands of fish down there but so far in spite of all my best efforts, I haven't been able to catch one. Not even a nibble. Poor me. Lucky fish. There were at least a dozen sport and commercial fishermen out on the Bank that we passed during the daylight hours, so perhaps the fish didn't get away scot free after all.

One of the most worrisome times for me when we are cruising is coming below to get my rest and leaving Barb alone on deck. I have to make myself remember to insist that she puts on her inflatable life jacket with the harness and teat she connects into the lifelines. Tonight should be a very peaceful crossing but that is just when something stupid drawn from being too complacent or relaxed will happen. Same thing applies to me I guess, but the thought of coming up for my watch after having a nap and not finding her there is something that I just don't like to think about.

I have decided that in two or three years we will be looking to convert to power. By that point Barb's poor old knees will definitely need a break and there will likely be something about me that gives way too. WE are never going to sail around the world or anything like that but coastal cruising or into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean is do-able, plus we would easily be able to take a motor yacht into the Great Lakes and down through the canal system to the Mississippi or the Great Circle Route, which would be fun. There may even be a book or a film in it, at least a picture book or a documentary.

When I took over my watch from Barb at 19h00 it was just getting dark and I looked out ahead of us and was able to see, in the distance, the glimmer of the Miami city lights even though they were still just slightly over 70 nm away. Civilization, it has its points but it also has its downsides too.

One of options for making this leg of the trip was to have broken it into two stages and actually anchor out on the Great Bahama Bank. Wouldn't that be weird? Anchoring out of sight of land in less than 20 feet of water? We elected not to do so but as of 20h00 I had passed two other boats that were doing just that. In addition there were several groups of boats out fishing. At first I thought that they were anchored too but then I noticed that they had their running lights still on and were moving about so they must have been fishing or maybe night diving. That's when the lobsters come out. However, as the night progressed I participated in some radio traffic trying to sort out who was whom from the cluster of radar contacts and lights that you can see out in the night. One sailboat named Ariel nearly had a collision with a fishing boat that didn't seem to have anyone on the bridge. Talk about excitement! I think that when Barb comes up to relieve at midnight I will stay on deck and take some cat naps, just in case.

Getting close to midnight now so I'll sign off for the day and start the blog for the 9th ......