Thank you to everyone who sent wonderful and funny comments regarding our videos. You have spurred us on to try more in the near future if we find other worthy subjects. After the encounter with the rambunctious pigs, we visited the nurse sharks of Staniel Cay in the Exumas, Bahamas which seem to just laze around the marina waiting for scraps the fishermen discard from their catches. There are dozens of them hanging around waiting to be fed. When we were here earlier in the year, we could actually pat the sharks on their heads without getting our hands bitten off which is not something I would try back home. Wherever we anchored near Staniel Cay, one or two nurse sharks would lie under Vanish or circle the boat making us disinclined to swim. We snorkeled over to Thunderball Cave though as we wanted to see it again after our previous visit earlier this year. I spotted a resting nurse shark hidden under a rock overhang but as no other tourists had seen it, I thought it best to keep it to myself as some of the tourists were already quite nervous in the water.



We've now spent 2 weeks cruising the Bahamas. We spent a pleasant day at Shroud Cay where we took the dinghy at high water through the mangrove lined waterway over to the Atlantic Ocean side. The following day we anchored near Highborne Cay before continuing north of the Exumas to New Providence Island where Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, is located. Maynard wanted to keep moving while the weather held. We anchored at West Bay which is on the north-eastern side of New Providence in a well sheltered bay with a couple of other vessels.

North of New Providence Island are the Berry Islands, a distance of around 60 miles and seas exposed to the North Atlantic Ocean. With 22 knots of wind and associated swell, the seas built to between 3 meters (9 ft) and 4 meters (13 ft) along the contour line where the seabed changed from 3000 meters (9,800 ft) to 20 meters (65 ft). However, it went back down to about 1 meter as we followed the coastline of the Berry Islands and anchored at Bullock Harbour in 2.8 meters of water. Our last sea passage of 60 miles to Freeport on Grand Bahama was ahead of us where we endured Hurricane Sandy last year.

On the morning we were due to leave the Berry Islands, Maynard suddenly had an extremely bad vertigo episode out of nowhere after rolling over in bed. He was disoriented, terribly nauseous but stabilised after an hour and we decided to go ahead and leave. I was concerned as there are serious medical diagnoses with someone with vertigo but after I conducted various tests (I am not a doctor though, just a good nurse!), we decided it was more likely to be an inner ear problem. Maynard rested during the passage but was able to dock Vanish in the marina at Freeport.

We're currently in a very small, quiet marina near Freeport. We have complete access to resort facilities; restaurant, pool, spa, and beach etc and 24 hour security. Maynard was back to normal the day after we arrived but the following day he went downhill fast, so fast that he needed to be hospitalised in Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport. It was a very traumatic 24 hours trying to cope with emergency room procedures, overworked doctors and lax nurses in an underfunded Government hospital system like nothing we're used to in Australia (which has the best medical care in the World). After many medical procedures, it was determined by his Guyanan doctor that he had a virus which had manifested in his inner ear, our original diagnosis. We never wanted to tick the box of testing out a foreign country's medical system but sometimes you don't get to choose. He's back on Vanish now and feeling 90% which is a great relief.

We've completed 1,536 miles since we left Panama a few weeks ago. Since we departed Freeport in February this year, we've travelled 4,000 miles via Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Panama and Jamaica. Vanish will be in Freeport for a while so that we can get annual maintenance done and a few items on our wish list brought over from the USA. It feels great being back in the Bahamas where we feel so comfortable and Vanish is safe and sound.

For more pics, see Photo Gallery.