We all know the story of ‘Cry Wolf’ and how important it is for you not to run around your village screaming about the bloodthirsty animals which are about, or not as the case may be, rampaging through the streets. After reading our pilot books about the monumental undertaking of sailing the 60 miles from Florida to the Bahamas and the huge 1 meter tides, we thought they were crying wolf. As we made our first cut through the marked ‘Strong Current’ we realised that all of a sudden the rampaging wolf was real.

After taking some great pilotage advice from ‘Magnum’ we left safe harbour and once again headed out to sea in the most perfect conditions. As we sailed the 50 miles downwind we took turns reading to each other and steering Ruffian in the bright sunshine while floating on top of deep blue water. The problem we had was that Ruffian was simply going too fast and we’d be early at the cut which was marked with ‘Strong Tides’.

We approached the cut full of bravado and confidence. How difficult could this actually be? The water around us turned into a boiling cauldron of white water, the waves piled together crashing over both the bow and the stern and even with our poor engine working its little heart out we were stationary. To answer the question; this really was rather difficult. Fiona made the great decision to bail and Iain turned the Ruffian around.

As we stood off waiting for the current reduce we watched countless big boats, with big engines power through the cut and watched their speeds come crashing down as they hit the current. After an hour the water was transformed from a cauldron to a mirror and we slipped in effortlessly. Good seamanship won the day as ever and the rampaging wolf that was the ‘Strong Current’ was quelled.

Thankfully we are now in the ‘inside’ and so have the challenge of sailing everywhere with less water under our keel than you’d find in a shallow puddle, but on the upside we have hundreds of little islands to entertain us. The water on the ‘inside’ is so bright it has the same effect as the emerald glasses Dorothy wore in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Everything is turned blue from the undersides of birds to clouds and even Ruffian is blue during the day and returns to her usual weathered appearance at night.

The only problem with all these 100’s of islands is that there is scant protection from the wind when the USA sends cold fronts down and so we have made for Farmers Cay as we have one of these bad boys on it’s way to us.

While we wait for the weather to arrive there are delights ashore to keep us entertained. We’d heard about a hike you can take to a cave and duly set off on trusty Thug for the first part of the journey. Ashore we hiked up the ‘hill’ and into the jaws of the underground cavern. Stalagmites grew up from the floor trying to reach the stalactites which fell from the ceiling. The atmosphere was cool and damp, the complete reverse of the hot arid landscape that we were looking at outside through the caves jaws.

We are now playing a bit of a waiting game as a front blasts its way down from America. We are anchored in deep sand and so we know Ruffian is safe, but sleep will be scare as Ruffian is always being pushed one way by the current and another by the wind. Tomorrow is not going to be one of the top fun days of our travels on Ruffian.

Bail out, bail out. When they said ‘strong current’ they really meant it.


Red sky at night, the barns alight.


More swimming pool sailing.


That’s a sad sad sight and he was even still attached to his anchor.


Poor Larry is all lonely. He’s missing his best friend, Hans, from Serafina.


That’s a cool beach house waiting to be blown down in the next hurricane.


No need to be afraid of the dark, particularly if you are armed with a light sabre.


Amazing stalagmites and stalactites.


Whoa! What’s making that shadow?


That’s really quite scary. The mailboat unloads his cargo just yards from us.


The runway doubles up as a road on Farmers Cay.


It’s almost like we are floating in the air.


That’s one way to stop birds landing on your dock.


Roadsigns Bahamian style.


Happily at another anchorage.


We’re not looking forward to Wednesday. We’ll be looking right into the teeth of the wind.