Well, it has been 2 weeks since we last wrote in our blog. We spent an incredible week with Roger's sister, Betsy, husband Rick, daughter Schuyler and Schuyler's BF Ilona. We had beautiful sunny weather with calm seas so the snorkeling was at its peak and the clarity of the water was like none other. Only negative was there was very little wind to sail. We did hoist the sails a few times, but truth be told, the engine could have been on as well.....

We introduced our guests to some of the "wonders" of Georgetown: Chat 'n Chill; a Bahamian rake 'n scrape at Eddie's; a hike to the monument and the beautiful beaches of Stocking Island. We then headed north up the Exuma chain, exploring Lee Stocking Island; Leaf Cay and the iguanas; Black Point and Scorpios; and finally Staniel Cay, visiting the swimming pigs and snorkeling the grotto. The highlight of the week was renting a motorboat for a day and cruised all the snorkeling favorites north of Staniel Cay, seeing a nurse shark and several barracudas, rays everywhere, pools of beautiful fish and many large starfish.

We now find ourselves on Cat Island, one of the outer family islands, about 53 miles east of Staniel Cay. We had a great sail to The Bight on Cat Island and have been here for several days now. We have joined up with our friends Cathy and Kim on Quiescence, rented a car and explored the island, enjoyed an evening of rake 'n scrape on the beach and have taken many long walks with Casey on beautiful white beaches all to ourselves! One evening a fellow cruiser who had caught 2 Mahi Mahi was willing to share the delicious fish with us. One of the "fry shacks", Hidden Treasures, cooked them up, and we had a feast. It felt like a very Bahamian cruising moment, a fellow cruisers generosity, fine cooking from a local chef, delicious drinks, a nice sunset, and good friends.

Now we await our first northerly in over a month. Boats are scrambling all over for coverage. Cat Island has nice protection from the north, east and south - not so much from the west. Several boats flat out left the island in the last few days - heading back to the Exumas where they will have 360 protection. Others headed into a local marina on the southern shore. We decided to stay on the banks side but move to the south where we get nice protection from the east and south. When it clocks to the west we'll head north and get protection when it continues to clock to the north. Fortunately it's not supposed to blow too hard or too long from the west. There are five other boats in the anchorage, and we assume they're all doing the same dance. Once the northerly passes, we will head north and spend a week exploring the island of Eleuthera.