So I had said there was nothing here in Atwood, but how wrong I was! It is second only to Big Sand Cay in terms of lovliness! We spent all morning exploring. We took our dinghy to the SE corner right next to a mature mangrove stand and the amazing sights just never ended. It seemed like a national park because there were shell, sponge, coral menagerie every where we looked and giant, very old conch shells in every cranny. The ground where there wasn't sugar white sand was a moonscape of what looked like lava flow which ran into calcium type deposits. There were shells that resembled fossils frozen into the strata. We both love feeling like we are the first people to ever explore a place. I know, I know other people have been there, but we were all by ourselves and it was astounding to have this whole shoreline to ourselves. We kept walking from the harbor side north to where there is a 180 degree elbow which took us along the eastern windward side. Spencer was looking for a suitcase full of money and I was looking for natural treasures. There were an infinite amount of wonders! There were 3 spotted bird eggs in a nook in the rock under my feet and the mother bird the kind of which I don't know, but she was small and wiry and very wary of me. Of course I did not disturb her brood, but she was bouncing around very concerned! There were intricate tidal pools which were filled to the brim with sand dollars and coral. There were delicate hermit crabs scuttling about the human flotsam and jetsam which migrate with the storms and look almost natural mingling with the landscape after being bleaching by the sun.
The intense blues of the water and the blow holes were endless and fascinated me. When we got to the far end of the beach and I thought I had seen all the beauty I could take the beach curved again to the right with the clear blue water which turned into a salt water river. I swam in the tidal river and it was warm and super clear and since the tide was going out it was a stuggle standing in it, not to mention the sand was so fine it felt like quicksand. It was creepy yet magnificent.
I had been dying to swim off the beach the whole way out and now that we were headed back I gave Spencer my beach bag and I swam out into the brilliant blue of the water. It was quite shallow, but quickly I was being swept out to sea! I underestimated the flow of current and it was an outgoing tide. I was soon out of my depth and panicky! I yelled for Spencer, but knew he couldn't do anything. There were reefs much farther out and I know all about rip tides and the best thing to do is to swim parallel to the shore and that is what I did with all my might!! Pretty quickly I was able to stand and I have never been happier! I really thought that this might be it! After debriefing with Spencer he didn't seem to think I was in that much trouble but he admitted that there would have been very little he could have done. The dingy was a 30 minute walk away at least and we only had the 2 HP motor on and by the time he would have been able to get to the boat, make an emergency call, get the go fast motor on I would have either been on the reef which would have been deadly, eaten by a shark (Something ate ½ of a big barracuda we had caught the day before!) or drowned because of panic and or waves, (It was blowing 20 knots and the swell was very large). Needless to say I will not swim so blithely out into waters I am not familiar with! I am writing this days later and I still think it was my closest call to death in all my years! It was also the dumbest thing I have ever done! Darwin will getcha! That night there was a feeding frenzy around our boat! Huge fish ,chasing medium fish, chasing smaller fish. It was like Wild Kingdom out there! The huge fish could have been tarpon? But these were huge and fast and didn't look like barracuda. We were watching movie and the splashing sounded like a swim team was swimming by!
We stayed two nights at Atwood harbor before making a very long 77 mile trek to Rum Cay. The wind was still stinky and gusting to 23 SE. We only stayed there a night and then onto Cat Island with the wind still whipping...

Cat Island is a beauty! We anchored off of Hawksnest and it was a perfect anchorage for the SE-E blow. The water was gorgeous, but there was definitely a shark circling so we decided that a dip wasn't necessary! The next day we pulled anchor and went to Staniel Cay and went ashore to go to one of Jimmy Buffet's favorite bars, and we were really looking forward to a lively Saturday night since the guidebooks say it is busy every night. Well, the Georgetown regatta was that day so everyone was down there! Augh! I need social interaction more than Spencer and we had been alone since Antigua! I don't even know how far back that was but it seems like a loooong time! Oh, well. The next morning we explored Thunderball cave where they shot some scene in a James Bond film and it was magnificent! The tropical fish and the beautiful coral were the highlights! We filmed a bunch of underwater shots and they will be featured on our Vol IV DVD which will be released with Vol III this summer. Also you will see exciting footage of us going through big rock cut while wind and wave were opposite! I was on the bow and may as well have been on a bronco bull! I had a steely grip on the camera and filmed the whole drama! Sometimes I feel like we are crazy people! When I was able to escape back to the pilot house Spencer was all in a tizzy because my tea spilled. I was just like, "Did you not see me up there?? Hello!!" Yes, the tea was wet, but I was hanging on for dear life and I filmed it and he was worried about an inch of spilled tea! Humph! After the drama we had a stellar sail up the Exuma Sound and pulled into the Land and sea park and grabbed a mooring. There were about 7 empty moorings and we had read in the guides that said they weren't open on Sunday after 12, so we thought that if there was an open mooring we would take it and go in and pay the next day but we got a spanking for taking a mooring without calling. Spencer was very nice and polite even though the woman went on and on about our transgression. Just remember to call on channel 9 before you get to Warderick Wells! It was a fascinating place and we took all of the hiking trails and went up to famous Boo Boo hill with all the driftwood signs with boat names at the top. The best part though was the sound side since the winds were 15-20 and out of the east and the surf was majestic and the colors of the water stunning!
I woke this morning to Spencer telling me that Bin Laden had been killed last night, but his body was buried at sea. It seemed like a marvel comic plot! We were able to listen to CNN and NPR and even Fox to learn more. Thank God for satellite radio! We left this morning after paying and getting another talking-to about calling first for the moorings. We sailed again today on the banks side. I will let Spencer fill you in on all the technical aspects of that and the issue with GPS we have been having along with chart differences. We are now anchored in Highborne Cay which is a good place for a NE-E blow. We are seeing 16-22 right now. Tomorrow we HAVE to go to Nassau and actually go ashore because we have run out of any produce frozen, canned or otherwise and we need staples as well. It will be good to do that since all we did was anchor there on the way down. The next day will be a night in Eluthera and then onto the Abacos!

I hope I wake up tomorrow and they say that the economy is all better and that it was just a national nightmare and no one ruined our economy with the whole credit default swap BS!! Is that too much to ask???