We had a real hard time leaving West End today. What a great time we've had here. The weather has been perfect (save a very pronounced and boisterous cold front which brought 35 know gusts in the marina). I've done some runs with Sam, our new young friend from Celebration. We have done a lot of biking; the marina has complementary bikes. We spent afternoons as the pool/ocean reading and relaxing and have developed great friendships with various other boats, who, like us have been rapt in this wonderful place.

I arranged with a local baker, Effie, for a bread order for our eight or so boats in our loosely organized fleet. We bought wonderful coconut and cinnamon raisin bread which was delivered to our boat piping hot. Judy and I and sometimes with our boat buddies made several bike trips to the nearby community of West End. It is a typical Bahamian village with very modest and somewhat ramshackle homes. The people are friendly and congenial. We had a lot of fun teasing some of the local merchants.

On one trip, we stop at what we think is a Catholic church and run into the pastor. We ask him if we can go into the church to pray and he opens it for us. I chat about the size of his parish and he tells me that he has 300 parishioners. I fine this a large number of Catholics for this modest size village; he informs me that it is an Episcopalian Church. I jokingly ask him if we can pray here anyway. Of course he responds.

We bike all along this village and eventually find the Catholic Church which has a following of about 30; more like it for the usual religious demographics here. On the way back we arrange to purchase Conch from a local fisherman. Conch (pronounced conk) is that large snail like creature which inhabits those beautiful pink shells you see people blowing. Anyway, Conch is to Bahamas as lobster is to Maine. They are harvested by diving. The part you eat is the muscle which is attached to the shell and has a singular claw on the end which is the means by which these guys slowly propel themselves. The meat part is a very rubbery (and ugly) thing but is very tasty when properly prepared. There are two aspects of getting the meat ready for cooking; first the meat has to be taken out of the shell. In our case we did not do this; the fishermen did it for us. The second is the "cracking" of the conch. The meat is so rubbery that it has to be tenderized or "cracked". Essentially you beat on it with a hammer until it becomes sinewy. It is a somewhat messy ordeal but we were given a hint that you could put the meat in one of those empty plastic bags from the boxes of wine, to contain the spewed juices. In any event, we get the conch, crack it and cook it up on the BBQ. It is very tasty.

We have our last dances at the beach side bar last evening. For a good while, Judy and I were the only people at the beach bar and the band was playing only for us. Finally we recruited some others to join us and have a fitting last evening in this wonderful place.

We awake this morning, realizing that it is time to go but also feeling we could stay here for the rest of the winter. It's blowing quite hard so we delay our departure until about 11:00. Our little impromptu community has grown so tight that we spend the entire morning chatting with our dockmates, most of whom are leaving soon but for various parts of the Bahamas. So we say good bye to the folks on Razzle, Celebration, Jelliq, Scharamouche, The Dove, and pull out of the harbour headed for Lucaya.

And, guess what? We are able to sail. For the first time since we returned from our trip home in November, we furl out both sails and shut down the engine. It is exquisite. The winds are shifty but we make pretty good time. How nice to not hear the thumping of the engine, but rather, the subtle gurgling of the boat cutting through the waves and the wind tickling the sails.

We make Lucaya (about ten miles past Freeport) about 4:00 and anchor in a canal. As we prepare supper, a boat from a nearby marina comes to tell us that we cannot anchor here. While we don't think they have the right to tell us so, we put up only a bit of fuss but ultimately move on to the other end of the canal. We are anchored next to our boat buddy, Breeze Hunter in a small canal cul de sac. Up tomorrow early to head for the Berry Islands.