It seems like a very long time since I have blogged or since we have really even been in touch with civilization. We left Georgetown gung-ho to get the heck out of dodge and see new things but also sad that so many new friends would be left behind perhaps to never be seen again. So it goes with cruising...

Our friends on "Happy Ours" were still stuck in G-town with a bad transmission and are struggling for parts. When we left we had hoped they would be following within a day or two and would catch up to us on Long Island. We have since heard that the last attempted band-aid repair failed and they must wait weeks more for hard to get parts to arrive from the states. We had considered cruising with them as far south as the Dominican Republic before heading back to Georgia but this late in the season the southeast trade winds are becoming stronger making that trip very difficult. There is just not time plus now there is no telling when their boat will again be mobile. They are on their way to Coral Bay in St. John with plans to live aboard there and seek jobs. We hope to see them in November or December when we hope to be back in the Virgins ourselves.

We left G-town fairly early in the morning dodging rain squalls and with strong north east winds. We had planned to go to either Thompson Bay or Calabash Bay on Long Island and we did not make a final decision until after clearing Conch cut north of G-town. Our friends on Amazing Grace II were heading to Thompson Bay and we hoped some other friends were going to Calabash so in the end I chose Calabash as the route crossed Exuma sound at its base where the fishing is supposed to be great. The Thompson Bay route would have been more directly downwind making the sailing less fun and with far less deep water the fishing would have been poor. Also, Thompson Bay did not have much that appealed to us except that "Amazing Grace II" would be there. We were sad about the possibility of not seeing Phillip, Sascha, Chantel or Corwin again but then again we knew they would be heading north and thought it was possible we could run into them again.

Our choice was rewarded less than 45 minutes after entering deep water when the reel suddenly screamed out as a fish hit our favorite lucky lure. Michele rounded the boat up into the wind and loosened the sheets so the boat speed dropped down to around 3.5kts and I spent a good 20 minutes fighting a fish only to be disappointed as I got it in close to the boat. Barracuda, probably 25-30lb. Yuck. I used our long neck pliers to grab hold of the nasty fish, twisted our lure loose and let him go.

We resumed sailing... a wonderful beam reach in 4-6ft seas and 20kts of wind. Lillie Mae soared along at 7.5kts and sometimes hitting over 8.5 coming down some of the swells. She sure loves reaching in conditions like that.... Everyone was having a blast on this ride and before we knew it the reel once again hollered "Fish On"!

Again Michele let the sheets go and rounded us up to slow the boat and I got to work fighting the fish. This time I got a very brief look at the fish when it was still 75 or so yards behind the boat as it jumped.... I was pretty sure it was Mahi-Mahi! After another good fight the fish was close and I could tell for sure that we did indeed have dinner on the hook, a nice 12-15lb Mahi. I gaffed the fish, got it aboard and as the kids watched with fascination fillet'd it up tossing the carcass overboard for the sharks.

We sailed on for Calabash Bay and got in around 3pm. We spotted our friends "SeaWalk", "Altona" and "Hook" all at anchor. We quickly learned that Ralf on "Altona" had also scored a big Mahi and everyone was planning to get together for dinner on "SeaWalk".

"SeaWalk" is a Dutch boat captained by Sergai, his wife Isabelle and their two kids Katy and Alec. They have been cruising for 3 years and are now on their way back to the States to have their boat shipped back to Holland.

"Altona" has Ralf and Wendy aboard and "Hook" is another kid boat, a little Morris 30' with Steve, Kirsten, Emma and Matti. Ralf and Wendy are retired and out cruising for as long as they can. Steve and crew are on their way to St. John where they also will be looking for jobs and living in an apartment in Coral Bay.

Calabash Bay on Long Island was simply gorgeous. The beach was stunning, the water gin clear and there was lots of coral to dive on. Sergai, Steve, Ralf and I spent most of several days attempting with little success to spear fish. Sergai got a couple of small grouper. We saw lots of fish... but lets just say most of the fish were far more adept at not getting speared than I was at spearing them. I did manage to spear one nice Nassau Grouper, but I lost him. We were in 20ft of water when I spotted him coming out of a hole. I swam down slowly... approached very carefully and finally at the limit of my breath I got a great spear shot right through his gills. I went up for air and immediately came back down. He had thrashed his way up under a ledge and appeared dead. I went up for another quick breath and dived again to retrieve my spear. This was a mistake. After 3 dives to 20ft one after another very quickly I had to spend a moment or so on the surface gasping for air. When I looked back down..... I had no idea where the ledge with the dead fish under it was. We all dove around repeatedly looking but we never did find that grouper. I was NOT happy. I should have left my spear on the bottom as it marked the spot where the fish was, this is a lesson I will not forget! I also now know that 20ft is pretty much the limit of how deep I can spear a fish. I can dive to around 35ft but diving down only to immediately return to the surface is one thing, lingering at all to try and spear a fish is something else entirely.

Everyone from all 4 boats (14 of us) decided to see Long Island so we rented a pair of minivans. Splitting the costs made it cheap... with gas less than $55 per family. We drove all the way down Long Island checking out all the small villages and sights. Despite knowing that we have excellent ground tackle and I had lots of scope out I still sweated leaving Lillie Mae along all day. It was blowing offshore at 20kts for most of the day and the boat was never far from my thoughts.

We went to Deans Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole on earth at 660ft. I had really thought this would be no big deal, a tourist trap or such. I could not have been more wrong. This was seriously cool. With high rocks on 3 sides and protected from the open ocean by wide shallows on the landward side this blue hole was amazing. The water was ankle deep as you waded in but less than 15 feet away it was 660ft deep. The water was perfectly clear and yet the abyss gaped below us as we snorkled over the hole (check the gallery for photos of this). There were tons of fish on the ledge at the very edge of the hole. I had planned to set a new free diving world record while at the hole, but decided to let it go this time since the deep water was a tad cool.

Speaking of records, the week before we visited, the Free Diving World Championships had been held at Deans Blue Hole. As it turned out, when we visited ESPN was interviewing William Truebridge who had won the championships and set a new free diving record at this event. We got to briefly meet the guy and talk to some of the crew there to learn about this sport. It's crazy. The guys who do this are literally lunatics and freaks of nature at the same time. The Free Diving is done without any gear. No snorkel, mask or fins of any kind. Just the diver in a wetsuit...that's it. There is no weighted sled or aid of any kind in going down and no aids in coming back to the surface, the diver swims down and swims back up. Truebridge set a new record of 318ft and was down over 4 minutes. He can hold his breath underwater in stable conditions for over 7.5 minutes. He said that in the hole, the current at 200ft stongly pulls you deeper and thus when going back up you have to fight against the current. I told you it was crazy.

While we had the rental car we also checked out Clarencetown, the biggest town on Long Island. We honestly expected more, there really wasn't much too it but we did get to check out the neat Catholic church built of stone by Father Jerome to a classical design. It was very cool.

The day after having the car rental the guys on "SeaWalk" and "Altona" headed out for Cat Island leaving us alone in Calabash with "Hook". More bittersweet partings, its unlikely we will run into "SeaWalk" again as they are heading to the states at a much faster pace than us. Steve and I tried some more spear fishing, the kids played on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen and in general we all spent a wonderful laid back day. "Hook" is heading back to G-town where they plan to leave the boat on a mooring while they fly to St. John to start their new lives. They plan to come back next winter and take the boat the rest of the way. They feel its just too late in the season to complete that passage in a boat that small. I agree. We really hope to see them in Coral Bay later this year.

We said goodbye to "Hook" early the next morning and headed out to Conception Island. The sail up was hard work. We were close hauled, sailing as tight to the wind as Lillie Mae would do, heeling hard over in 20-25kts of apparent wind and seas running 4-6ft. It was a long morning of bashing hard to weather...a stark reminder of why we really did not want to head further south this season into the teeth of the trade winds. We laid the anchorage at Conception on our second tack and dropped the hook after a 20 mile run in mid afternoon.

Conception is a Bahamian National Trust site...a national park. There is nothing on the island, it is preserved in its natural state. It is stunning. The beaches are perfect, the interior is criss-crossed with mangrove streams that can be explored by dinghy and best of all two days after we arrived our friends in "Amazing Grace II" came motoring into the anchorage! We decided to stay at Conception an extra day to spend more time with the "Amazing Grace II" gang.

Also while we were at Conception we met a couple with a 5 year old son sailing on their brand new Passport 61. We had drinks one evening on their boat and it was stunning. This boat was on the cover of Cruising World magazine last January and it won their award of Best Systems in a cruising boat for 2009. This massive boat offers push button sailing at its best. The massive 3 spreader rig with solent rig double headsails can spread a jaw dropping amount of sail area and all of it is controlled at the push of a button by hydraulic in mast furling and all powered winches and furlers. The entire boat was one dazzling display of high tech wizardry after another. Literally, this boat can be easily sailed by one person who never had to leave the helm and who's physical exertions are limited to the flexing of a finger joint. I left feeling like some ancient mariner from the long gone days when hard men sailed hard oceans facing the realization that his ways have been left behind. Its nice to see how it can be done when funds are not a restriction!

We left Conception with plans to stop at Hawks Nest Marina on the southern tip of Cat Island. "Amazing Grace II" was planning to head further up Cat Island to New Bight. It was a very slow downwind sail in light winds and ¾ of the way across I had to fire the engine (horror of horrors!!!) as the boat speed dropped to less than 3kts over the ground and that's including 1kt of current! I would have stubbornly soldiered on except for the knowledge that going so slow our chances of catching any fish were nill. So we motored sailed the last few miles to the tip of Cat Island and my decision was rewarded with a fish right at the ledge where the deep water rose to the shallow sound. I landed a nice 10-12lb black fin tuna. As we turned the corner at Cat Island we decided to blow off Hawks Nest so we could sail on into New Bight and spend more time with "Amazing Grace II". This must have been the right choice because as soon as we rounded the point at Hawks Nest and landed the tuna the wind freshened and we had a great 10 mile run up to the anchorage close hauled with 15kts apparent wind and totally flat seas. Lillie Mae romped along at over 7kts and everyone had a smile on their face. Close hauled rocks when your in the lee!

We anchored up next to "Amazing Grace II" (yes they arrived first..... they motored the whole way!) and invited them over for dinner. I grilled up the tuna and it was awesome. They were planning to leave early this morning to head for Little San Salvador and then north while our plans are to cross back over Exuma Sound to the Exumas and to visit all the neat stuff we missed on our rush south the Georgetown. We said our goodbyes again and everyone was sad that we may not see them again.

We woke thise morning, splashed the dinghy and got ready to go hiking up to the Hermitage. This is a super cool hand built stone home and chapel built by Father Jerome (look him up... really a cool story. He did tons of mission work and built hurricane proof churches around the Bahamas. He died in 1958) for his retirement. It is built at the summit of the tallest peak in the Bahamas and the views are gorgeous. This is an extremely small and simply abode. It has a tiny sleeping room, kitchen with open hearth, outside wash area, a private worship chapel and a small tower with an observation platform at the top. Father Jerome also built a very steep path up to his Hermitage complete with detailed and awe inspiring carvings depicting Christ's struggle to carry the cross on his back to Calvary. It is an inspiring place to visit (see pics in the gallery).

After hiking back down to New Bight we located a great bakery and bought some bread and a small grocery store for some provisions. We also spied "Amazing Grace II" still in the anchorage and we were happy to learn they had changed their plans to stay here today and then to head back across Exuma sound to Black Point Settlement tomorrow. That sounds perfect to us, Black Point has been one of my favorite places so far. So the plan is at this point to get things ship shape once again, head out early in the morning and sail back to Great Guana Cay and to then sail slowly back up the Exuma chain. We hope to be somewhere near Eleuthera Island by the end of the month and then to head to the Abaco's. July starts in Jeckyll Island, GA.

(my attempt to upload all the photos failed.... I will try again over in Black Point Settlement next week)