Compass Cay, Exuma Islands

Sometimes we aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. Two days ago while we were in Warderick Wells we tried going snorkeling in 20 knots of wind. The snorkeling site was about a mile away by dinghy and the waves had built up to a good chop (2-3 feet, really close together). We got soaked just on the dinghy ride over there. With the wind and waves, trying to anchor the dinghy in 15 feet of water would've been tough. About every third wave had a nice frost of whitecap, so there was no way we were getting in the water to try to look at some fish, it was just too rough. So you'd think we'd learn. But today guess what, even though the anemometer (fancy word for wind speedometer) registered 22 knots of wind, we climbed in the dinghy anyway to try to explore the caves over at the Rocky Dundas.

Funny thing about the 2 islands that make up the Rocky Dundas, they are basically massive limestone rock islands with sheer cliffs dropping vertically to the water's edge. All around the island there is a slight overhang where the cliffs meet the water, and it is under this ledge that you can find the caves. You have just enough room (4 ft) to sneak under the ledge at low tide. Once past the ledge you can get inside the larger space of the caves, some of them are even lit by the sun through "skylights" (holes in the rock above going all the way down through the island). Let me tell you, they looked really awesome as we approached in the dinghy. It sure looked like there would be some amazing snorkeling back there. Of course, it also looked like a great way to get killed or severely maimed since the wind was pushing the waves right up into the caves. Surf was pounding everywhere with each crash. We just looked at each other, shook our heads, and Kevin turned the dinghy around without a word.

So instead we settled for the tamer waters in our protected anchorage back on the other island, Chicken Cay (the significance of the name was not lost on us). Our anchorage there was surrounded on three sides including the direction the wind was coming from so there weren't any waves to speak of. There were several cool reefs to explore, teeming with schools of fish in day-glo colors. I just enjoyed floating above the cities of coral but Kevin, who was on the prowl for spiny lobster or conch since we are now just outside the boundary of Exuma Park, was disappointed to come back empty-handed. Secretly I was kind of relieved since both conch and lobster are overfished here, and even though it is legal for us to take them I feel bad. It doesn't stop me from eating lobster and conch fritters at restaurants but somehow when I see it in its natural habitat it feels like maybe I should just live and let live. Great, now I have the Wings song "Live and Let Die" running through my head (or Guns N' Roses depending on which generation you belong to).

Where we are (we moved less than a mile over to Compass Cay for better wind protection):
Lat: N 24 16.750'
Long: W 76 32.598'

Chicken Cay & the Rocky Dundas

Today we left Warderick Wells and headed south a few miles to Chicken Cay. The wind was right on our nose and the waves were close together making for a really bumpy ride. Poor Boris (who likes to hide in the forward bunk) was probably airborne several times as the bow pitched up and down. But now we are nestled in this little cove off a tiny private island (Chicken Cay). The snorkeling around here is supposed to be fantastic, Kevin already explored some of the reefs inside this cove and tomorrow we will dinghy over to these two islands called the Rocky Dundas which have some partially submerged caves to explore.

Tonight is spaghetti night, we always do spaghetti and our version of "must see TV"--season 3 of "Seinfeld" and season 2 of "News Radio". We brought a few TV shows with us and set up a schedule. "Desperate Housewives" on Tuesday nights, "Nip/Tuck" on Saturday, "Father Ted" & "The Simpsons" on Sunday. It helps us to keep track of what day it is. Which I need, especially since my watch got destroyed. I had the best watch that told time, date, tides, lunar cycle, you name it. It was also waterproof. When I was in Phoenix I made the mistake of going to Al Zuni (in the AZ Mills mall) to change the watch battery. I should've gone to the Watch Station or somewhere that specializes in watches made in this century. But the Watch Station watch battery guy wasn't in yet and I would've had to wait 3 hours so instead I took it to this ancient man in a jewelry shop. I'm fairly sure he had never seen this type of watch because he spent an hour taking it apart and replacing the battery (no exaggeration -- an hour). Anyway, when I got it back I should've known it wouldn't be waterproof, but I forgot and stupidly jumped in the water last week with it on. It was completely waterlogged and even though Kevin took it apart and we dried every piece, it was definitely dead. So now I am a little disoriented because I don't know the date, the time, or the day of the week (let alone the lunar cycle). Good thing we're in the Bahamas, where time is relative and there really isn't a set schedule.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 16.415'
Long: W 76 32.311'

Warderick Wells - Boativersary

Well we have officially owned the boat for an entire year as of today March 7 (not sure if this will post on the 7th or the 8th). One of the truisims that we have learned about boat ownership is that things break. A lot. Sometimes we break things (accidentally of course), sometimes nature breaks them, and sometimes they just get broken for reasons known only to themselves. We (meaning Kevin, obviously) are currently troubleshooting problems with two of our more important pieces of equipment.

The watermaker. Where do I begin? For those of you who aren't familiar with it, this little machine is supposed to take salt water and turn it into fresh. It sounds like magic, but it is really just using reverse osmosis to push the salt water through very small membranes to filter out the salt and other impurities. Then alacaZAM! you have fresh, potable water. When we bought the boat we were so excited because the model we have is supposed to output 16 gallons of freshwater an hour. That is enough water to take daily showers (one of our inalienable rights as Americans) as well as do the occasional load of laundry. We have recently discovered that due to issues with one of the pumps (why is it always the pump?), our watermaker is outputting only 3.7 gallons/hour. And that's on high output mode, when we run it on efficiency mode (to conserve electricity) it is even slower. Even on efficiency mode it draws a lot of power so we are concerned because we can't keep our water tank full without running the genset longer than we'd like to. I think Kevin has done all he can for this machine. It's 10 years old, parts of it leak a little, and it is looking like we need to at least replace one of the main pumps, which we will probably try to do once we get to Georgetown in April. Of course we will have to have it shipped from the states so that is a whole other tale which I won't bore you with. You know that rhyme about the US postal service, something to the effect of "neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail will stop the delivery of your mail"? Well in the Bahamas it doesn't snow, sleet, or hail, but their postal service leaves something to be desired.

The other item that has been a constant problem has been the wind generator. The wind generator is basically a windmill device that is supposed to charge up your battery bank whenever the wind blows more than 5 knots or so. When we are living "on the hook" (anchoring instead of tying up at marinas) we basically have three ways to keep our batteries fully charged: the wind generator (only works when it's windy), the solar cells (only work when it's sunny), and the genset (works as long as you have diesel in the tank). Ideally, we should be able to get enough juice between the wind generator and the solar cells that we shouldn't have to run the genset very often. However, our wind generator has never put out the amps that the company claims -- 5.5 amps in 10 knots, 11 amps in 15 knots). But what we are getting is more like 0 amps in 10 knots and it takes a steady 20 knots to even squeeze 5 amps out of it. We sent the generator back to the company for analysis and they said all was okay, but sure enough we kept getting the same low results. Kevin has gone over the wiring with a fine tooth comb and can't find anywhere where we might be "losing" amps, so we think it is the generator. We have been getting along okay with just the solar cells and the diesel generator, but it sure would be nice to have a generator that runs on one of the most readily available power sources here -- wind. Anyway, that is another item we will be looking into when we get to Georgetown.

Despite the issues, both of these things are non-critical pieces of equipment. If they are out of commission it doesn't impact our safety, or even our comfort. So we just add them to our ever-growing list of things that need attention and pour ourselves an ice-cold drink to celebrate our one-year boativersary. Now if the freezer ever crapped out on us, we would really be in trouble. Knock wood.

Warderick Wells - Hutia and the Blowholes

Today was the perfect day to go hiking. We filled water bottles, slathered on the sunscreen (we are both way beyond "farmer tan" at this point), and headed to the trailhead on the beach. It's hard to miss the beach as there is a 52 foot sperm whale skeleton stretching across it. It was put there as a warning to cruisers not to toss bags of garbage overboard, apparently the poor whale ingested some and died as a result.

We hiked all over the north part of the island, keeping our eyes peeled for hutias. The hutia (hoo-tee-uh) is a small rodent and is the only land mammal native to the Bahamas. In the 60's it was believed to be extinct but a small colony was found on another island. In 1981 they imported 13 of them here to Warderick Wells and, as rodents do, they went forth and multiplied. Unfortunately they are nocturnal so the only hutia we got to see today was stuffed and under glass in the Warden's office.

Our hike took us to the top of the hill overlooking the shallow Exuma Bank on the west and the deeper Exuma Sound to the east. Walking along the limestone cliff we came across several holes in the rock that the guidebook described as blowholes. The holes go all the way down to the ocean and when the waves surge through the sea caves below, the blowholes erupt with gusts of air and sometimes ocean spray. Kevin was standing over two seemingly dormant ones when he asked "so when do you think they actually blow?". His question was answered immediately by a loud crashing noise and a gust of air strong enough to blow his shirt up to his chest. He jumped back and -- I am not kidding here -- screamed like a girl. No wonder the original settlers thought this area of the island was haunted by the ghosts of shipwrecks. Blowholes are scaaarry.

We tried to use the wifi internet access here ($10 for 24 hours -- guess they can charge whatever they want in the middle of nowhere) to upload photos to the website. Unfortunately the connection crapped out on us and we were only able to upload one photo (of the fish Kevin caught on our way from Nassau). We will try again next time we can find a faster connection.

Warderick Wells - Happy Hour

Yesterday we called ahead to Exuma Park to reserve a mooring ball at their Headquarters on Warderick Wells. We are expecting one or two weak cold fronts coming through in the next few days so we will stay here at least until Wednesday. During a frontal passage the wind can clock around 180 degrees from south to north so it is nice to be in a very protected spot, sheltered from all directions. The mooring field in Warderick Wells is pretty strange, there is a deep channel maybe 100 feet wide that has moorings single file. On either side of the channel are sand flats that are above the water at low tide. It is good that the park put the moorings in, since a bunch of boats anchored here would be a nightmare. At least with the moorings all the boats are evenly spaced and have enough room so that their swing circles don't intersect and no one goes "bump in the night". The island here is pretty cool, the wardens have cut hiking trails all across the island so we plan to explore a bit while we're here. There are no restaurants or grocery stores, but the main office does have a "video store" (a shelf of recent and not-so-recent releases available for a $2 rental fee). So we might check that out, too. Neither of us has ever seen that J-Lo movie "Maid in Manhattan", anyone know if that's any good?

When we checked in at the office, they told us that on Saturdays they have a "happy hour" at 5pm. Basically it is a BYOB, bring some appetizers to share, and the park provides a cooler of ice for your drinks. So at 4pm I was frantically trying to come up with an "appetizer". We have very little in the way of snack food at this point. The few snack packs of chips that we bought back when we provisioned in Florida were too valuable to just give away. And when I suggested I bake a batch of brownies Kevin said no way, since the boxes of brownie mix are hard to come by out here in the "out islands". So after racking my brain I came up with cracker mini-pizzas since we have plenty of club crackers, plenty of pasta sauce, several pounds of mozzarella cheese, and we just picked up a bag of pepperoni while we were in Nassau. So at 5:15, snacks and drinks in hand, we dinghied on up to the beach.

We met a bunch of people so quickly I couldn't remember all their names. One couple was actually in Port Lucaya at the same time we were and they remembered seeing our wedding taking place at the hotel. They actually have the same wedding anniversary as us -- Jan 14th. Small world. Everyone was really friendly and soon we were all swapping stories. It was weird though, every person we spoke with at length was fairly new to cruising and had bought their boat within the past year or so. We kind of wondered where all the "old salts" were. It was cool to see so many people from different walks of life (there were people from all over -- Czech Republic, Canada, Scotland, England, US) who have all decided to sail off into the sunset so to speak. We enjoyed meeting a few new friends and since many of them are also heading south to Georgetown, I'm sure we'll see some of them again in the weeks to come.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 23.831'
Long: W 76 37.952'

Shroud Cay - Lazy River

Today was another sunny day in the Bahamas. Winds were light again so the water was crystal clear as well. Our little barracuda friend came by to tease Kevin some more. We can tell it's him because he's got some fishing line hanging from his gills. No wonder he now makes his home in the Exuma Park where no one can hook him.

This morning we fired up the dinghy to do some exploring inland. Shroud Cay is unique in that it has a series of saltwater creeks crisscrossing the island. At high tide they are deep enough to dinghy around in. Today was a good day to do this, since the sun was out and the water was calm so you could see the sandy, grassy bottom of the creek four feet below you. Although the creeks occur naturally they look like something you'd see at a theme park because they are perfectly walled in on either side by mangroves. It looks man-made, like someone tried to make a water park attraction along the lines of Golfland's Lazy River or Disney's Jungle Cruise. Parts of it reminded me of the movie "the African Queen" although for Kevin's sake I restrained myself from doing my (bad) impersonations of Kate Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart (schweethaart...). You can go in a creek on the west side of the island and come out on the beach on the east side, which is what we did. On the eastern beach there was something the guidebook called "Camp Driftwood". Back in the free-loving 60's a hermit named Ernest lived here on his sailboat and built a trail up the highest hill on the island (50 feet -- the Bahamas is not known for its mountainous terrain). He'd pick up whatever flotsam and jetsam washed up on the beach and make it into a table, a chair, or just plain weird artwork, all of which he left up on the hill's summit. He's long gone now, but nowadays cruisers just bring whatever junk they find on the beach and mark their boat name and the date on it and leave it up there. The oddest thing we saw there was that someone had carved a styrofoam float buoy into a mannequin head, complete with a construction hardhat (?) and a cigarette butt hanging out of his mouth. Other than that it was mostly junk -- t-shirts strung up on twine, baseball caps, a pair of sneakers dangling from a palm tree, lawn chairs, laundry baskets, and only the occasional piece of neatly engraved driftwood. We opted to just leave footprints, since someone had already stole our idea of carving a construction guy dummy head.

Shroud Cay - Exuma Islands

This morning started off clear and windless. We motored down to Shroud Cay and anchored just off the southwest side of the island. We are now just inside the protected waters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. It is 176 square miles that the Bahamian government has set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. There is no fishing or taking of any sea or land life, including seashells. Fines are hefty -- if you are caught poaching they can do anything from fine you $500 to the more drastic measures of confiscating your boat and sending you back home. So we don't intend to fish, in fact Kevin put his fishing poles away so that he wouldn't forget. Of course this afternoon we spotted a huge barracuda hanging out not five feet behind the boat right at the surface watching us. The fish stayed there at least an hour, hardly moving. We aren't sure what he wanted -- he might've been expecting a handout or maybe he just wanted to taunt Kevin who has been dying to see, let alone catch, a fish that size.

The early afternoon was hot, and with no wind it was sweltering. After our nurse shark encounter the other day we consulted via email with Darlene, our friendly neighborhood shark enthusiast. She confirmed for us that nurse sharks are non-aggressive and don't like the taste of humans too much so long as we aren't swimming around with chum tied all over us. So Kevin and I felt safe enough going for quick swim to cool off (sans chum, of course). After that we put up the bow shade which was something the original owner had made for the boat. It is basically a huge white canvas circus tent that shades the front half of the boat. You can lay out on the trampolines and get cooled by the breeze without getting roasted in the sun. It looks bizarre from a distance, but it really works well. We had to take it down pretty quickly when we saw a dark patch of clouds in the distance. Within 30 minutes we were hit by a brief squall with 20 knot winds and rain. Funny thing about squalls like that, they move so fast. This one was gone in less than 2 hours and we had sunshine and no wind again for the rest of the afternoon.

Our friend Brett emailed us a good question the other day, asking what kind of boat is a trawler. It's a big slow motor vessel that's usually not very aerodynamic-looking (as opposed to a power boat, which looks like it was built for speed). A lot of couples cruise in them, since they have good fuel economy and can be fairly roomy inside. Note when I say "slow" it's relative, a trawler's cruising speed can be anywhere from 5-10 knots (we cruise at about 7.5). Anyway, I try to remember to define any sailing lingo we use in these logs, but if I forget let me know.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 32.051'
Long: W 76 48.163'

Norman's Cay - Gangsta's Paradise

We are seven miles south of Highborne Cay, anchored on the west side of Norman's Cay. Back in the 70's and early 80's this was the base of operations for a cocaine-smuggling drug lord named Carlos Lehder. This guy bought up much of the island's buildings including the marina and airstrip. When he was here his goons would chase away would-be cruisers with guns. It's quite a long story of how he was caught, basically the US pursued him for years and the Bahamian government didn't do too much about him (he owned more than the island, it was thought that he owned several high-ranking officials as well). After dogged pursuit by the DEA, Lehder fled to Medellin, Colombia where he was captured, extradited to the US and is now serving life w/o parole plus 135 years. Anyway, now life on the island is back to normal, but there are a few reminders of his presence.

Probably the most famous is the submerged wreck of a small drug running airplane (a DC-3 maybe?). We dinghied around the south end of the island into the harbor to check it out. It is there resting on the bottom in maybe 6 feet of water. The wings are intact, the tail has fallen over and the fuselage is disintegrating. We were a little disappointed because our guidebook has this great photo of the near-intact plane clearly visible above the surface but the picture must be 20 years old and of course we went to the wreckage at high tide so all we could see above the water was maybe a foot of the fuselage. But the water was clear and we could see the plane submerged as "plane" as day.

The other attraction on Norman's, that I was specifically looking forward to, is a restaurant called MacDuff's that is reported to have the best burgers in the Bahamas. Unfortunately it is under new management and will maybe (?) re-open in November but was definitely closed for business when we went ashore. So tonight I decided to try something. Our friend Jo on Maggie Rose (see SC trip log) recommended some mail-order canned meats. We ordered one can each of pork, beef, and ground beef, just to try it out. We tried the pork a month ago with bbq sauce and it made great pulled pork sandwiches. So tonight I thought I'd try sloppy joes with the ground beef. It was less than spectacular. When I opened the can, Boris immediately started meowing and I can't blame him, the contents did resemble cat food. Once I mixed in the sloppy joe fixings it turned out okay, but since our freezer works really well I think in the future we'll just stick to frozen meat. Anyway it wasn't a total loss, we did have rum drinks while the sun went down. All in all, a pretty good day.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 35.996'
Long: W 76 49.510'

Highborne Cay - shark infested waters

So this morning the wind died down a bit and we were able to move over to the western side of Highborne Cay and dinghy into the marina. We weren't originally planning to stop here, but we did want to pick up our spare pump from Hart's Desire. We got a little soaked on the dinghy ride in, since the current was against the wind and it made for a wet rollercoaster ride. After speaking with the couple from Hart's, it sounds like they have a leak around their driveshaft seal (the driveshaft drives the propeller) which is something that can't be fixed until they haul out, so it looks like their cruise is over and they will have to go back to Nassau. We sure hope they are able to get it fixed in Nassau, since we would not attempt a gulf stream crossing with a problem like that.

After picking up the pump, we explored the marina a bit. For such a remote location, it was pretty new. They had a well-stocked grocery and boating equipment store, a nice book swap, and even a catering service that delivers to your boat! But best of all they had some amazing beachfront right outside the marina, I swear it looked like something out of a Corona commercial -- white sandy beach, hammocks strung between palm trees, wooden rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, the whole nine yards. Just being there was relaxing. Until we ventured out to the fish cleaning station at the end of the dock and happened to look over the side. There were 11 huge nurse sharks swimming around -- and I mean huge -- each was easily as big as Kevin, not including the tail (their tail, not Kevin's). I guess they hang out there waiting for someone to clean a fish and throw the guts over the side. It was amazing -- you could see them so clearly. (We have photos and video that we'll upload to the website next time we have internet access.) We had unknowingly dinghied right past them to get into the marina, but what was so frightening was that we knew we'd have to go right back through them to get out! But they took no notice of us and by the time we got the dinghy over there, they had stopped feeding and had settled back down on the bottom where they typically hang out.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 42.811'
Long: W 76 49.802'

Allan Cay - Noises Off

When I first moved into my house I used to get a little freaked out by the sounds the house would make as it "settled". Now that we are living on the boat it seems that everything makes noise -- the slap of the waves on the hull, the whistle of the wind through the rigging, and the creak of the boom when we are being rocked by the waves. These are the sounds you get used to, and by now Kevin and I can sleep straight through this cacophony of normal boat noises. But when there is an unfamiliar sound, no matter how faint, it always wakes me up. Like several months ago when I heard the whisper of a whirring noise coming from the wall of the forward compartment. Turns out the genset oil pump switch has been bumped and the pump was trying to pump all the oil out of our generator! Luckily it was plugged up so no oil escaped, but left unnoticed it would've burned out the pump. Or like last night, when the wind was howling and out of nowhere we hear this awful clicking noise on the hull right next to the bed. It sounded ominous and I was afraid maybe the lifelines had been torn loose by the wind (gusting 25+ knots). But when we investigated, it was just a towel that had been hung out to dry and forgotten. It had busted loose and the clothespins were clacking against the hull. Anyway, no matter what you have to find out what's making the noise and reassure yourself whether it's a "normal" noise or a sound that's warning you about something amiss. As I sit here typing I can hear an unidentified squeak that wasn't there yesterday. Better go investigate...

Allan Cay - Iguanas

This morning the wind shifted to the southwest 20+ knots so we decided to head back to Allan Cay which is more protected from that direction. Just as we were getting ready to head over there we saw a trawler in the distance -- sure enough it was Hart's Desire along with a small powerboat from Highborne Cay marina. So they must not have gotten off the beach last night at high tide, but instead had to wait until 6 am today for the higher high tide. Later in the day, they radioed us to tell us that they'd made it safely to the marina and would have our pump there ready for us whenever we stop by Highborne Cay.

Now that we were back in Allan's Cay we decided to go ashore and see something that all the guidebooks talk about. Apparently there are some wild iguanas that are native to two of the islands in this anchorage. So we took the dinghy over to Leaf Cay and as we were approaching the beach a huge iguana crawled to the middle of the beach as though he was the welcome committee. We had just beached the dinghy when about 30 more iguanas came out of the bushes to the beach -- it was like something out of Jurassic Park. You are not supposed to feed them but tour boats come through here and I guess the iguanas are used to getting treats when boats arrive. Anyway, we didn't have anything to give them but they hung out on the beach for a few minutes before finally wandering away looking a little disappointed.

Well the wind is supposed to shift 180 degrees tonight (SW to NE) so we got some more practice setting a second anchor. So we are tucked in tight and prepared for the cold front that should be here sometime tonight. After that we should have fabulous breezy weather for the rest of the week, which we are looking forward to.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 45.116'
Long: W 76 50.172'

Highborne Cay, Exuma Islands

Well it was a frustrating night for us. We were both very worried about the elderly couple on Hart's Desire so we did not sleep well at all, plus the wind had kicked up to 25 knots and was rolling all the boats in Allan's Cay. It was pitch black all night since moonrise wasn't until 5 am, and we just had kind of a fitful night.

Kevin got up at sunrise (high tide) this morning and dinghied over to Hart's Desire to check on them with the intent of helping them get off the beach. When he got there he found the boat was farther up on the beach, abandoned, and had turned slightly so both the stern and the bow were up on the beach. He had radioed them last night and suggested they consider setting an anchor so that when the tide lifted their boat they would hold their position and be able to back off the beach. They decided not to do this, and instead intentionally drove the boat farther up the beach as the tide came in, in an attempt to maintain their position and avoid the rocks on either side of the beach. Consequently, come morning there was no way they were going to get off the beach under their own power. Kevin recommended they call Highborne Cay marina a few miles away and see if they could provide some assistance. We think their cruise is over. It is doubtful that anyone is going to get them off that beach, no one is going to be able to even try it until the next high tide (12 hours) which is about sunset. And that high tide is lower than the morning high tide when they beached it, making things that much more difficult. We haven't been boating long, but this crew makes us look like seasoned veterans, despite their "25 years boating experience". They had no idea where they were until we told them (we aren't sure how they even made it to the Bahamas), Kevin saw their paper charts and they were over 15 years old. They have an electronic chartplotter but don't have any electronic charts for the Bahamas on board, and don't know how to use it. Neither of their two bilge pumps worked (arguably the most important piece of equipment on the boat). They have no spares for anything. They beached their boat in a horrible location (a narrow rocky beach) while there was a huge sandy beach with no rocks about 500 feet away. They abandoned the boat when it wasn't necessary endangering all the other boats in the anchorage. They had no idea when high and low tide would be and how to use them to get the boat off the beach. They raised a distress call on the VHF, they could have gotten help faster by standing on the back of their boat and yelling to the 10 boats which were within earshot. I could go on... Anyway, hopefully they can get some help from the professionals at the marina. We left our spare bilge pump with them and asked them to leave it at the marina when (if) they get off the beach. They sure seem like nice folks, but hopefully they end their cruise before one or both of them is seriously hurt.

Due to a wind shift, we have moved about 2 miles to a new anchorage north of Highborne Cay. On the charts it appears to be a tricky anchorage to get into, but we didn't find it too difficult to get in here and we have a huge anchorage to ourselves, protected from winds and waves from the East to the Southwest which is where the wind is supposed to be tonight. The bottom is clear sand and the water is pure turquoise so it looks like we are anchored in paradise.

Where we are:
Lat: N 24 43.598'
Long: W 76 49.421'

Allan Cay, Exuma Islands

Today we left Nassau for Allan Cay, which is one of the northernmost islands in the Exuma (pronounced Ex-OOO-ma, not eczema as I have recently learned!) island chain. During the passage across the Exuma Bank there was no wind and the shallow water was like glass the whole way -- we saw starfish, coral, even a nurse shark as clear as day. Kevin finally used his new trolling rod and within 10 minutes caught a fish, even though we were racing along at 7 knots. I had just snapped a picture when the fish started flopping and flopped himself right off the hook and thunk-thunked down the transom steps like a slinky. Guess he is the "one that got away". After that, no more fish would bite.

We had some excitement today. I was preparing dinner and we were listening to Headline News. I was sort of listening to the VHF radio out of the corner of my ear when I heard what I thought was a distress call on the VHF. After the experience at Hoffman Cay we have started monitoring the VHF at anchor, we used to just turn it off. Sure enough there was a trawler (Hart's Desire) taking on water that had beached itself between two rocks. They had no pump and were radioing the marina on Highborne Cay (1 island to the south) for assistance. They claimed that they were south of Highborne Cay, but their GPS coordinates put them in our anchorage in a cove not visible to most boats in the anchorage (there were at least 8-10 boats). Another boat radioed that they were willing to help but the couple on Hart's were unsure of their position. They kept emphatically repeating that they were "nowhere near Allan Cay" even though each time they gave their coordinates they were smack in the center of Allan Cay. The vessel was taking on water and their bilge pumps weren't working and they had no spare pump so no way to pump the water out. So Kevin got in the dinghy to check and see if they really were where their coordinates said they were and sure enough Hart's Desire was in Allan Cay. So Kevin raced back to our boat to get some pumps and went back to help. By the time Kevin got back to Hart's Desire, the water was up to the floorboards and still rising. Kevin rigged up the spare pump with a garden hose and spliced it into the nearest 12v source, a reading light in the v-berth (bedroom). Meanwhile another boat showed up with another electric pump, which Kevin also hooked up in MacGyver fashion. With the two pumps running, the water level started to drop, but now the tide was going out and with the boat beached it was listing about 30 degrees. A toolbox slid off a shelf and hit Kevin in the shoulder, narrowly missing his head. Once the water level was low enough, Kevin inspected all their seacocks looking for the source of the leak, but couldn't find it. After 2 1/2 hours, Kevin had done all he could and knew at least that they wouldn't sink. Of course by now it was pitch black and raining so the dinghy ride home was a wet one. We're in a pretty remote area, so it's not like in the US where you can just call Sea-Tow and they'll come out and save your butt. You need to be self sufficient out here, or you end up hoping a good Samaritan will be around to rescue you. Here they were in a crowded anchorage, and out of all the boats only 2 were monitoring the vhf, the rest were completely oblivious that a boat was sinking less than 1/4 mile away. This is the 2nd boat that we've heard in the past week that has been taking on water with no spare pump. We have 2 spares -- a 12 volt electric pump and a hand-operated pump as a backup (not to mention about a half dozen other pumps on board that we could easily cannibalize to pump water out of the bilge if we had to). We also carry several different size buckets, but sometimes buckets won't fit into tiny bilge or engine compartments. Hopefully we'll never need them, but it is nice to know they're there. We'll keep you posted on how this drama ends, tomorrow they're going to have to get off the beach somehow, and we doubt they'll be able to do it on their own.

Nassau - Odds & Ends

Well we didn't make it to the Distillery. The phone number we had for the Bacardi tour was no longer in service and we weren't feeling too touristy today so instead we had a late lunch at the restaurant here at the marina (enchantingly named "The Poop Deck"). Afterwards we bought wetsuits at the dive shop, picked up a few more boat supplies, and hit Radio Shack one more time. It has been nice to have all the conveniences (stores, restaurants, touristy stuff) but Nassau also has the same drawbacks of any big city -- crowded, traffic, etc.

While we were out and about yesterday we smelled a heavenly baking aroma and wandered into a bakery specializing in rum cake. It was so tempting that we tried a sample and bought one. For anyone who's never had it, it is basically a bundt cake soaked in rum. Kevin loves it, but tonight as I started eating a slice I realized that I like the cake part but the rum taste is a little too strong. Kevin said "you're saying you like rum cake so long as it isn't marinated in rum. So really you just like cake." He's right. I am going on the record here. I like cake. I like rum. But I do not like rum cake.

Nassau - Shiver Me Timbers, Matey!

This morning we finished up one last maintenance detail -- changing the fuel filters. When I say "we" I really mean "Kevin" since all I usually do is stand there and go fetch things when he needs them. However this morning he had just pulled out the old filter in one of the engines and was ready to close the filter housing back up when I held up the new racor filter that he was supposed to have installed and asked, "Hey, don't you need to do something with this?". So even though I may not be doing the actual work, I do occasionally contribute something.

After lunch we went downtown and our first stop was the pirate museum. Okay, everybody say it with me -- "Aaaarrgh!". There was a guy standing outside the museum dressed in pirate garb. He looked pretty bored and was actually in mid-yawn when he noticed us approaching and managed to convert the yawn into a hearty "aaarrgh!" of welcome. The museum itself was pretty good, kind of like the Disney ride only without the catchy song or the animatronics or the ride. But the walkthrough museum was really well done with lots of information about the real pirates, and of course there was a gift shop/pub at the end so we had a chance to down some grog -- er, Kaliks.

From there we did some more exploring of the downtown area. There wasn't a whole lot else to see sightseeing-wise other than shops and a straw market and some government buildings. None of which had the appeal of the pirate theme (one last time -- "aaarrgh!") so we decided to call it a day and head back to the boat. Tomorrow we will try to find a bus to take us to the other side of the island to tour the Bacardi distillery.

Nassau - Errands & Maintenance

Today we ran a bunch of errands - grocery store, chandlery, and Radio Shack. Everything was just a short walk from the boat so it was convenient. Afterwards we returned to the boat for a fun day of cleaning and maintenance. While Kevin lubricated the windlass (for hauling up the anchor) and changed the oil in the genset, I cleaned the interior of the boat and started on the laundry. It is really awesome to have a washer/dryer on the boat. There is always a line at the marina laundry and at $3+ per load it can get expensive. The marina is charging us an outrageous sum for water for the boat ($10/day whether we use 1 gallon or 20), so we figure we will use as much as we can and get all our clothes and linens clean while we're here.

Kevin also managed to hook up the free satellite cable! We have normal TV! Of course the one channel we really wanted (Comedy Central) is scrambled. So no "Daily Show" for us. Funny thing is after surfing through 100 channels we realized that there was really nothing on anyway!
Then it was time to change the oil in the diesel engines. The previous owner installed these electric oil pumps that make it really easy -- just flick a switch to pump the bad oil into a bucket and then pour in the new oil. It is so easy even I could do it. However the one on the starboard engine wouldn't pump for some reason. After messing with it for an hour, Kevin found the problem -- the impeller had lost all its teeth and they were clogging up the pump. So after Kevin dug out the old impeller and teeth and replaced it (thank goodness we have loaded up on spares) the pump worked like a champ.

So that was our day today. Not very exciting, but if you don't keep up on the maintenance it can come back to haunt you later. Tomorrow hopefully we'll have something interesting as we're hoping to do some more sightseeing -- the Pirates museum (aaarrrgh!) and also the Bacardi factory.

Nassau - Atlantis and the rest of Paradise Island

Today we explored the behemoth that is Atlantis. The resort takes up 75% of Paradise Island and goes way beyond "mega resort". Apparently Donald Trump used to own it, but it wasn't in great shape and rooms were going as low as $80/night, so a South African guy bought it, expanded it, and gave it the theme of Atlantis. Now the cheapest room in the oldest building is upwards of $300/night, and the nicest suite goes for $25,000/night (4 nights minimum). We decided to shell out $30 for the guided tour, since the property is huge. The tour took us through "the Dig", an attraction which is basically an aquarium but they try to make it seem like we are truly touring the ruins of the lost city. Now, there were only four of us on the tour (all adults), but Kevin and I were cracking up when this guy, dead serious, asked the guide if any of the artifacts were from the "real" Atlantis. Our guide kept a straight face and told him that no, most of it was a conceptualization based on the writings of Plato in 300 BC. But THEN the guy asks, "Oh, so Play-doh lived here in the Bahamas?". Jeez, no wonder the rest of the world thinks Americans are dumb. Anyway the resort was stunning and the $30 tour was worth it, but here's my take on it: It is like any nicer hotel in Vegas, but a lot more family-friendly. If you are looking for a romantic getaway this would not be the place (too many kids), and if you are looking to see the "real" Bahamas look elsewhere. But it is surely nicer than either of the resorts we stayed at when we went to Cancun, so if you are just looking for cool water attractions (the lazy river goes right thru the shark exhibit via an underwater tube) and overpriced food and drinks look no further.

For romance though, you can't get any better than the Cloisters. This is also on Paradise Island (the 25% that isn't taken up by Atlantis) and was originally a 14th century Augustinian monastery that was imported to the US from France by William Randolph Hearst (Rose...bud...)back in the 20's. Some other guy (Huntington Hartford?) bought it from Hearst in the 60's and brought it to Nassau. Apparently the pieces weren't numbered for reassembly, so he had an artist piece together what the cloisters "could have" looked like. The result is breathtaking, and there's a reason why this is the #1 wedding spot on the island.

Nassau, New Providence

Well after deciphering the weather forecast we decided today would be a good day to head over to Nassau. We were up and on our way by 6:45 am since we've noticed that the wind and waves are typically milder in the mornings. We raised both sails (no issues this time!) and left the starboard engine running so that we could motorsail at 8 knots instead of just sail at 5.5 knots. The trip was a little over 38 nautical miles, and we arrived in the general vicinity around 10:30 am. Nassau has a requirement that you "check in" with Nassau Harbour Control prior to entering the harbor. They want to know who you are, where you've been, and where you are headed. I'm not sure if they do this so much for Big Brother reasons, or if they are just trying to make sure you don't run into one of the massive cruise ships that are constantly entering and leaving the port. In a sense it is like air traffic control -- the cruise ships are the Jumbo Jets and Solstice is like a Cessna, a verrry tiny Cessna. Today was Saturday, one of the worst days for cruise ships, and literally four of them were ahead of us as we approached the harbour. We did the conservative thing and held back until they were all in their berths before going in, especially since some of them turned around and backed in. (Kind of like the way my dad insists on backing the truck into the parking space instead of just parking head first).

Anyway, we have just tied up at Nassau Yacht Haven, which is right in the middle of town (they have relatively cheap wi-fi access -- yay!). We passed the monstrous Atlantis on the way in, and we plan to check it out and report back. Kevin is enthusiastically planning a trip to Radio Shack, and I personally am looking forward to prime rib at Outback Steakhouse. I like conch as much as the next person, but give me a steak, baked potato, and blooming onion and I am a happy gal.

Where we are:
Lat: N25 04.528'
Long: W77 19.064'

Little Harbour Cay - rainy

So remember how I mentioned in a previous post that we would get more practice setting two anchors? Well we sure did, last night at 2 am. Although the anchor was not dragging, the wind had shifted so the Anchor Alarm went off sounding like the Atari game from hell. Thanks to the wind shift we were starting to drift a little too close to shore, so we set the new Fortress and got it to hold on the second try. (Hey, YOU try setting an anchor in the dark!).

Well today has been a little rainy and the wind is gusting to more than 25 knots. So it looks like we won't be heading to Nassau today. (We gave up on Chub Cay, we are expecting mail in Nassau.)The Shiner Bock's that we got from "Escondido" came in handy today, and Kevin also invented a new drink that we are calling the "Bahamas Sunset". It's Rum, OJ & Pineapple, with a splash of grenadine and a splash of Fruit Punch (the Stop & Shop generic version of Crystal Light). If you do it right, the grenadine sinks to the bottom, and the Crystal Light floats on the top and the orange stuff stays in the middle. Well, WE think it looks like a sunset. You be the judge.

Little Harbour Cay - there and back again

Yesterday another boat came into the anchorage, a Manta 42 called "Escondido". We had seen them at our last anchorage but hadn't had a chance to talk much so last night the four of us went to dinner at Flo's. John and Shelley are from Fort Worth and have great Texas accents. They were super friendly and we are looking forward to meeting up with them again, as they are heading in the same direction we are (Nassau, and eventually to Georgetown in the Exumas) We traded them a loaf of bread for 4 Shiner Bocks (Texas Beer!), I think we got the better end of the deal.

We had planned to head on to Chub Cay this morning, so today around 8:30 we hauled up both anchors (Kevin had to haul up the Fortress by hand, along with 50 ft of chain -- we are going to practice more setting two anchors because we are sure there is an easier way than how we did it.) Escondido was up and out of the anchorage with sails up before we even had our first anchor up. We got outside the anchorage and were seeing winds gusting to 22, with 4-6 foot seas. Up until now we've tried to only sail in 10-15 knots, mostly because I get terrified easily. But today we thought maybe it was time to get experience with stronger winds and started to raise the main. That's when stuff started going wrong. First the halyard (that is the line that hoists the sail) wrapped itself around the shroud (one of the wires that holds up the mast). So with the mainsail half raised we couldn't raise it any more and had to lower it so that Kevin could unfoul the halyard. Okay, try again. The second time we raised the sail, the reef lines (which are used to make the sail smaller in high winds) got all tangled up on two of our GPS antennas, cracking the PVC pipes in half. We were lucky not to lose them overboard, and fortunately it was only the PVC housing that broke, not the cables inside. Plus we think one of the reef lines must have hit our wind generator (works like a windmill to generate power) because now it appears to be unbalanced and is vibrating quite a bit more than normal. Anyway we were unwilling to risk a third try and with broken equipment, we decided to turn around and come back. So our spirits are a little low, but we are going to hang here since hopefully the windspeed will decrease by Saturday. I should mention that 20 knot winds aren't considered bad conditions. Sometimes 20 knots can be a great day sailing, other times 20 knots can be pretty unpleasant. It depends on not only the size of the seas, but how close together they are. Sometimes you don't know until you go out and check it out for yourself. Today we decided that we didn't want to slog through it, but Escondido got out there just fine. So even though the conditions were manageable, we think we did the right thing coming back in.

Where we are:
Lat: N25 34.075
Long: W77 43.308

Little Harbour Cay, Berry Islands

Ah, beer. Sweet, sweet beer. When we provisioned our boat for this trip we decided (by mutual agreement) that we should try not to stock soda and beer and instead bought drink mixes and rum and juice since they would A. take up less room, and B. require less ice. Plus beer is kind of expensive in the Bahamas, compared to rum anyway. I have no problem going without soda, but sometimes you just want an ice cold beer. At this point I don't even have a preference -- Kalik, Heineken, Miller, even Corona with lime (and I am not a fan of lime in my beer) -- it doesn't matter as long as it is cold and frothy. Don't get me wrong, I like rum drinks as well as anyone but it's been a week and we are finally back in civilization where we can order food from an actual menu along with the frosty goodness known as beer.

By "civilization", I mean that we have moved on to Little Harbour Cay. It is only 3 miles south of our Hoffman anchorage, and it took maybe 30 minutes to get here, which is less time than it takes us to remove the sailcovers and put them back on, hence our decision to motor vs. sail. We have the anchorage all to ourselves and there is a swift current that runs north when the tide comes in and south when it goes out, so we set two anchors: our trusty delta and the massive fortress that Kevin's mom gave us as a wedding present. This is the first time we've used the fortress and it does not budge, so we will sleep soundly tonight. After we were satisfied with our anchor setup, I radioed and made reservations for dinner at the restaurant.

The fact that there is a restaurant or even a settlement on Little Harbour at all is a testament to the Darville family. Hurricane Andrew hit this place pretty hard and devastated nearly everything. But Chester and his mom Flo took the adversity in stride to pursue Chester's dream of running an island restaurant/bar so they opened Flo's Conch Bar. They welcomed us at the door and we had a lovely lobster dinner, frosty Kaliks, and great company. They are the island's only year-round residents, so when cruisers come through they are happy to hang out and pass the time. After preparing the excellent meal Flo came out and sat with us and the four of us watched TV together for a while. They even have satellite. Ah, TV. Sweet, sweet TV...

Hoffmans Cay - Cold Front

A year ago today we both still had jobs, cars, furniture, and a house. We were on a ski vacation in Whistler and Kevin shocked me by proposing marriage over a swanky dinner. What a difference a year can make. Now everything we own that isn't on the boat fits easily into a 5X5 storage unit and although we still own the house someone else is living there. No more swanky dinners, either, since now we have to eat my cooking.

There was a little excitement yesterday. A front came through in the morning bringing with it winds gusting to 32 mph. Unfortunately around 10 am the current picked up and was opposite to the wind, causing all the boats in the anchorage to go in circles around their anchors. The monohull next to us must've wrapped their anchor chain around the anchor and pulled it up because they started to drift toward the rocky beach. Kevin got out the horn and sounded the danger signal (five short blasts) while one of the other boats in the anchorage hailed them on the VHF to let them know what was going on. Luckily, they were able to move to safer water and reset their anchor.

Kevin was up most of the night perfecting his latest version of his "Anchor Alarm" software. Basically the software knows the GPS coordinates of the anchor and goes off if the boat's distance to those coordinates goes above or below a certain number (indicating that we are dragging away or sitting on top of our anchor), or if the bearing to the anchor changes more than 90 degrees (indicating that the wind has shifted and we should get up and check what's going on). When we were still working, he had a similar version of the software running on my loaner laptop from work, and the alarm was a voice synthesized one that sounded like a speak-n-spell: "Anchor. Alarm. Anchor. Alarm.". But now we only have his personal laptop which is older and doesn't have a voice synthesizer. So our new alarm sounds like a cross between "Asteroid" and "Space Invaders". Ah, technology. Now if only Kevin could somehow program a "Collision Alarm" to tell is if one of the other boats is dragging towards us!

Hoffmans Cay - the Blue Hole

Yesterday morning we decided to explore Hoffman's Cay. One of our guidebooks described a Blue Hole that was a little ways inland, so we got in the dinghy and went to check it out. After landing the dinghy on one of the beaches we found a trail that we hoped was the right one. It was a 10 minute hike through the jungle and it was a bit creepy because everything was quiet except the crunching of our footsteps and the scurrying of lizards through the leaves. There was no doubt that we had arrived at the right place when we saw a huge blue hole (aptly named) at the end of the path. We were on a cliff looking down into a perfectly round deep pool. It's basically a limestone cave that has collapsed, in Mexico they call them cenotes. The trail led down under an overhang of the cave and directly to the water. Kevin was thinking of taking a swim, our guidebook says that if you dive down there is an underwater cave, but the water was pretty cold and there was a lot of algae. We did kick ourselves for not bringing a fishing pole though, since there were two huge grouper slowly swimming a circuit around the pool.

We returned to the boat for lunch and Kevin snorkeled a bit. Another Manta catamaran came and anchored, and Kevin met the owner John. Seems like we are all heading down to the Exumas for the Manta Migration, which is a get together for Manta owners (another apt name).

Well it is Sunday 7 am and we've been up for several hours since the boat is rocking and makes it tough to sleep. A front is blowing through so there's lots of wind and it looks like it might rain most of the morning. Guess we'll spend most of today inside, kind of like "indoor recess". Maybe I can convince Kevin to a Trivial Pursuit rematch...he might have a chance this time.

Hoffman's Cay - White Cay

Last night was a sleepless night. We thought we had chosen a good place, well protected from the wind, but it turns out we had a raging current and the boat was rolling side to side all night. Neither of us could sleep very well, so today we pulled up the anchor and moved a few hundred feet to get out of the current. We also met our neighbors in the Manta 38 "Beach Magic". They are a family of four from Montreal and they are cruising the Bahamas for a few months also. Their boat is the first Manta that was ever built, hull #1 (for comparison, we are #17). They home school their two children with lessons in the morning and snorkeling, etc. in the afternoon. They also have a big yellow lab called Saga. It is amazing that they fit two kids and a dog in a boat slightly smaller than ours. We've got one full room crammed with supplies and spares and can't imagine finding space to store stuff and provisions for two more crewmembers for four months!

We rowed the dinghy ashore today to White Cay. Actually I rowed the dinghy, it was my first time rowing. Kevin installed oar locks on the dinghy back in December. Prior to that, I was a complete prisoner on the boat because of my inability to start our massive 30hp outboard. I am a wuss and can't even get it to turn over. Now that we have oar locks, I'm FREE! Our anchorage is surrounded by several "deserted" islands, and White Cay is one of the smaller ones. It has a beach and several tidepool-like coves. It was fun to explore ashore. Hopefully tomorrow, we'll go hiking around Hoffman Cay which is a larger island.

Hoffmans Cay, Berry Islands

After 1000 miles of motoring we finally got in some sailing. The wind was behind us the whole way and we ambled along at an average of 4.4 knots, with a few bursts of speed up to 10 kts when the wind kicked up a bit. It felt nice to finally sail somewhere, we are really out of practice! Our cat Boris (who was seasick on the trip down from Grand Bahama) seems to have finally found his sealegs and managed a lengthy catnap while we were underway. We arrived at Hoffman's Cay which is about 20 miles south of where we were yesterday. There are four other boats in the anchorage and surprise, surprise there is another Manta. You'd think we would stop being surprised but seriously there are only 100 of these boats and we keep seeing them everywhere, from Rhode Island to the Bahamas. It's kind of the equivalent of owning a DeLorean and then seeing another one every time you park. Anyway we are planning to stay in this spot for the next few days, there's a couple fantastic beaches and maybe tomorrow we'll go ashore and explore.

Right now Kevin is firing up the grill for burgers and we've got Marley playing on the stereo, sounds like time for me to mix up some rum drinks.

The Professor and Mary Ann

Last night there were four boats anchored here. When we woke up this morning they had all left. We decided to stay one more night but it was rolly where we were originally anchored so we picked up and moved a little closer to the land. Kevin went snorkeling to take a look at the anchor and swim around a bit (the water was too cold for me - 73 degrees). Kevin saw two huge rays sitting on the bottom right next to a huge lobster. It was quiet and peaceful and then a posse of 20 jetskiers pops up out of nowhere. Well, not out of nowhere, remember how I said the island is owned by Carnival cruise lines? Well we've seen two cruise ships come and go (they only stay for a day) and it seems that jetskiing is one of the "shore activities" that passengers can do. Parasailing seems to be on the list as well, we saw several people go up this afternoon.

Our activities today were a little slower paced. I tried out a recipe for fruit cobbler from one of the cookbooks Kevin's Aunt Diane gave us for our wedding. Kevin snorkeled, fixed a few small things, and we listened to Headline News on Sirius radio. All this activity wore us out so of course we had to take an afternoon siesta. Actually Kevin was pretty tired, he'd woken up every 2 hours the night before to check on the anchor. Anyway now night is falling, the cruise ship is gone and there are no other boats in sight - we have the anchorage all to ourselves. Cue the theme song to "Gilligan's Island"...

Great Stirrup Cay, Berry Islands

We were about halfway through our passage from Grand Bahama to the Berry Islands. The water was smooth, the winds were light, we were motoring along, and I was thinking "Wow, this passage has been pretty uneventful. Aside from seeing some flying fish, our web update tonight will be pretty boring." Moments later, Kevin came up and shut down the starboard engine because he heard a strange noise. When he opened up the engine compartment he could see that the engine temperature sensor cable had been rubbing on the belt. The belt was a bit worn and the coating on the cable was worn right through to the copper. He figured it must have happened when the mechanic replaced the crankshaft seals back in December. So it had only been going on for 3 "boat days" (we haven't been moving around much for the past 2 months). Anyway, he was able to relocate the cable and decided to wait to change the belt until we stopped for the night since he thought it looked okay and didn't want to burn himself on the hot engine.

So we restart the engine and a minute or two later Kevin runs up yelling "Shut it down, shut it down!". I didn't need to be told twice so I shut it down. Turns out the belt broke as soon as we restarted the engine and the engine overheated pretty quickly to 240 degrees (180 is normal). Kevin replaced the belt and we restarted the engine so that the coolant could do its job and get the engine temperature back down. So that was a bit of excitement, but that's what I get for thinking that the update would be boring.

We are in the Berry Islands anchored just off Great Stirrup Cay, which is about 60 nautical miles south of Grand Bahama. The island is actually owned by Carnival Cruise Lines, so I'm not sure what will happen if we go ashore, maybe Capt. Steubing and Gopher will chase us off the island since we aren't cruise ship passengers. I guess tomorrow we'll find out.

Where we are today (paste into your browser):
http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm?lat=25.8134&lon=-77.8984

Grand Bahama

Well, we've been in Port Lucaya now for more than a month and we are ready to move on. Not that we don't like the place (we love it here), but we are ready to see more of the Bahamas.

People here are really wonderful, absolutely the friendliest we've found (they may actually tie with New Zealanders for my vote on most friendly people). They'll go out of their way to help you or make sure you are enjoying your stay. One day we took a 30 minute bus ride to the Lucayan National Park and arranged to be picked up by the bus at 5pm. At 5:20 our bus driver Jan showed up in a taxi, profusely apologizing because she'd gotten a flat tire and wasn't there on time. She didn't want to leave us out in the middle of nowhere so she borrowed her dad's taxi to come get us! And it's not just people in the tourism industry, either. Everyone is nice. It must be ingrained in the kids when they're young. We were mini-golfing one day when a schoolbus stopped nearby. All the kids were hanging out the windows and shouting and waving at us and as the bus pulled away one of them yelled, "Good afternoon!" Now, if this had happened in America, I'm sure the kids would've yelled something but I doubt it would've been "Good afternoon".

Well we are trying to take care of some business (taxes, wedding proofs, updating our new blog) while we are waiting for the next weather window to make a run for the Berry Islands about 60 miles south of here. Last week it was windy with a lot of rain, which meant we spent quite a bit of time on the boat. We mostly did tax stuff and watched movies, specifically films that one or the other of us had never seen. This meant Kevin had to sit through "Dirty Dancing" while I had to undergo "RoboCop". After watching them both even Kevin had to admit that "Dirty Dancing" is the better film, and we agree that both of us prefer Jennifer Grey's original nose.

Anyway the weather has cleared up and it looks like tomorrow will be the day we'll take off for the Berry Islands, Kevin's going over the charts as I type. We'll try to keep the blog updated every couple of days to let you all know where we are and what's going on.

Grand Bahama Wedding

After returning to Stuart, we did some last minute provisioning. Our plan was to wait for a weather window and leave from Lake Worth inlet and make landfall at either West End, Grand Bahama, or if possible all the way to Port Lucaya. Going to the Bahamas from Florida involves crossing the Gulfstream, which is basically an 'ocean river' with currents averaging about 2.5 knots northbound. It is important to wait for the right weather conditions, because with wind and current opposed the waves get big and steep. So we were watching the weather closely waiting for a day with light winds and no northerly component. Thursday would be the day (Jan 5). On Wednesday, we left Stuart and continued down the ICW to Lake Worth. We had planned to leave a bit before dawn to guarantee we would make landfall during daylight. Since we were unfamiliar with the Lake Worth inlet, we did a practice run through the inlet the day before in daylight just to see where all the lighted buoys were. Then we dropped anchor in Lake Worth and got a few hours of sleep before waking at 3am to get underway on a course to Port Lucaya.

I'll admit, I was nervous but once we got through the inlet and turned on the autopilot it was just us and the ocean for about 11 hours. We saw a few tankers on the horizon but hardly any other boats, and no sailboats. Of course that may have been because it was totally becalmed, but we aren't proud -- we motor if that's what it takes to get the job done. We monitored our progress closely and were ready to divert to West End, if we couldn't make Bell Channel by dark. But this wasn't necessary, we made it to Grand Bahama's Bell Channel around 3:30 and were through Customs & Immigration by 5. Time for some rum drinks.

We had one week to go before the wedding and our guests started arriving. It was tough to watch everyone else having fun laying by the pool, scuba diving, etc while we attended to "wedding business" -- meeting the magistrate, getting the license, advising the DJ, etc. We had a few group activities planned for all of our guests, all of which were lots of fun (the activities, not the guests, although they were mostly fun too). We had golf, a pub crawl, a snorkeling trip, and a beach party. Oh yeah, we had a wedding and a reception too.

The morning of the wedding, we woke up to overcast skies and gale force winds. Fortunately, within a few hours the clouds had burned off, and it was just windy. Really windy. I'm talking about the kind of wind that can knock you down. Marva, our wedding planner has a standard contingency plan of using curtained tents for inclement weather, the problem was, that it was too windy to set up the tents. We were going to get married in a lovely gazebo between two of the hotel buildings, but the wind was even worse there, gusting to over 50 mph (I'm not exaggerating). The chairs were actually being blown over. So, at the last minute we moved the wedding to the patio in front of the Pelican Bay Hotel's reception, where it was a bit sheltered. The ceremony was beautiful (see the wedding album to the right) in spite of the wind.

After the wedding, we had a cocktail hour and reception overlooking the water adjacent to the hotel. They had permanent tents there that could take the wind. Everybody had a great time dancing, eating and drinking, we had a steel pan player for the cocktail hour and a DJ for the rest of the time. Kevin and I danced the foxtrot to 'Beyond the Sea' by Bobby Darin for the first dance (which we had feverishly practiced the night before - neither of us remember much from our dance lessons!).

Over the next few days the majority of our guests left, Brian and Candi came and spent a few days on the boat with us. It was nice to just relax and have the wedding behind us. They were filming Pirates of the Caribbean sequels here at the time and we saw quite a few celebrities. We actually bought Geoffrey Rush a beer and a pack of cigarettes at Rum Runners. We also saw Mackenzie Crook at Oasis, and Martin Klebba at Pelican Bay. Some friends of ours saw Johnny Depp, but we haven't yet.

We made a quick trip home for our Phoenix wedding reception, and to attend the wedding of our friends, Catherine and Brett. It was a whirlwind trip, only 2 days. On the way back to the Bahamas we had a 3 hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale, so we ran to West Marine and spent all the gift cards we had received as wedding presents (Thanks everyone!).

From the Best Man’s Toast:

TOP TEN REASONS TO LIVE ON A BOAT
10. Unlike on a boat, screaming “I’m the king of the world” in front of your house would scare the neighbors.
9. Kelp does not need to be overseeded during the winter.
8. Living on a boat makes it a lot easier to find your cat.
7. I’ve got one word for you: levees!
6. When the toilet breaks, you don’t need to go to the corner gas station.
5. Painting “Solstice” on your house would get you fined by the homeowner’s association.
4. The ocean is the only place Starbucks won’t put a store.
3. Bikinis! Bikinis! Bikinis!
2. It’s a lot harder for The Man to keep you down when The Man can’t find you.
1. It makes it a heck of a lot easier to get married in the Bahamas!

The trip south - FL and Home

Okay, I'm not going to lie. I've been remiss in my duties and I'm actually writing this in February, although I'm going to date it December. Hey, I've had a lot going on -- two trips back home, two weddings (one my own), and also general laziness. Anyway, hopefully most of you know that we made it safe and sound to Florida and beyond, but let me sum up the rest of the trip:

1.) We made it to Florida. Duh. And we learned that the ICW leaves ugly brown stains on your hull.

2.) We had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner aboard the boat, complete with turkey (just a breast -- the oven's kinda small), mashed potatoes, stuffing, and fresh baked bread.

3.) We stayed longer than we planned in St. Augustine because it was so cool. We'd gladly go there again (and probably will).

4.) We hauled the boat out once we got to Fort Pierce FL. Haulouts are expensive!

5.) Stuart's Southpoint Anchorage is still the best deal in town. We kept the boat there after the haulout. Interestingly they've been hit by several hurricanes -- two last year and one this year, and there are still a couple of boats washed ashore. But its one of our favorite places -- reasonably priced and a short walk to the downtown pubs and restaurants.

While poor Kevin got stuck with the haulout duties, I flew back to Phoenix to spend time with family and friends. I'd been feeling pretty homesick, so seeing everyone really helped. My friend Catherine had a lovely bridal shower and bachelorette party (Vegas, baby. Vegas.), Jamie and my sisters threw me a fantastic bridal shower. Kevin joined me for the week of Christmas, and we frantically scurried all over the Valley trying to get last-minute wedding things done while we had a car. But by New Year's Eve we were both back on the boat (and in bed by 10:30pm. Yeah, I know we're lame.)

Anyway, most of you know what happens next, but I'll post it separately. :)

The trip south - SC to GA

Yes we have made it all the way to Georgia. Only 300 miles to go.

So we have not raised a sail once in the past month or so. We have been motoring down the intracoastal waterway (ICW) which is a series of interconnected rivers, canals, swamps, and other inland waters that begins at Norfolk VA and takes you all the way down to the Florida Keys. Its nickname is the "ditch" and in some parts that is exactly what it is -- a ditch carved out by the Army Corps of Engineers. So for anyone who has been worried about us being offshore in bad weather, worry no more. We are "inside" and are anchoring in safe harbors every night.

We have seen some interesting things on this leg of the trip. We have gone straight through a military firing range (they weren't practicing at the time), seen some interesting lawn decor along the ICW, and narrowly avoided a tug pulling a quarter mile train of barges. I apologize for labeling the photos "Long Ass Barge" but that is what the tug captain let slip over the radio when he was asking us to get out of his way: "You see ma'am, I'm towing this long-ass, I mean big ol' barge here...". It looked like he was towing the entire Alaskan pipeline to me, 10 barges behind him at least! We are in "hurricane country" now, we can tell by the outrageous-looking houses on stilts. In all other respects they are beautiful homes, mansions even, but the stilts sure detract from the beauty. I guess it's better to have an ugly house still standing than a pretty one washed away by a storm surge. We have not seen any bad weather, the hurricane season is tapering off and officially ends on Nov 30th.

So as we were leaving Wrightsville Beach NC, I ran the boat aground. Luckily it was soft ground and we used the other engine to get us off the bottom, but it was still kind of stressful and not the greatest way to start out the day at 6:30 am. Running aground is fairly common along the ICW from what we have read. There is a lot of shoaling in the rivers and creeks so many times the chart says it is deeper than it really is. For us running aground is no big deal because as a catamaran, we use the engine on the other hull to help us get off the bottom and into deeper water. So far the score is Kevin: 2 groundings, Amanda: 1. But not for lack of trying. I have had several close calls so I imagine I will be ahead by the end of the trip.

Heading south through North Carolina we went through the Cape Fear River. I wonder who named it Cape Fear and why? The name conjures up images of scary winds and currents and waves. Why would they name it something like that, just to intimidate you? Kevin suggested that we change the name on all our charts from "Cape Fear" to "Cape Fun & Games". That's how I'm going to refer to it in future. Just you wait -- it'll catch on.

We made some new "friends" one night at an anchorage in the Calabash River. We had dropped our anchor and were swinging around in a strong current drifting far from our anchor. Another boat called Turnabout* comes swooping in and drops their anchor right next to ours. I tried telling them "no", that our anchor was over there but they didn't listen. Our boat was far away so we thought it would be okay, but then later the tide changed and the current switched sending our boat in the opposite direction. Of course we ended up on top of each other at 2 am. We had asked them not to anchor there, then told them "hey put out some fenders" (they refused) and finally around 2:45 am our boats bumped each other. There was no damage, and technically they should have been the ones to move since we were there first, but they wouldn't move and we ended up picking up anchor and resetting at 3am. Funny thing is, now we see them EVERY DAY, rain or shine. And what's worse is that they get up earlier than us and get going, and then we get going and we motor faster than them, so we literally pass them every day. We haven't seen any other boats as many times as we have seen Turnabout. At first it was irritating but now it's just plain funny.

We have met some nice people though. While we were docked at Myrtle Beach we met Jack and Jo, from the sailboat "Maggie Rose". We went out to happy hour with them and then the next night we both anchored at the same place and grilled burgers. And we have also seen several other boats that are the same make/model as our boat (Manta catamaran). There are only 100 of these boats in the world and we have seen 8 of them since Rhode Island. Pretty much everyone we have met has been very friendly, and all of us seem to be heading to the same place, so we'll probably see some of them when we are in the Bahamas.

Here's an interesting fact: there are two Beauforts on our charts, one in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. I was pretty confused until I heard the natives pronounce the name of their home town. Beaufort, NC is pronounced BOH-furt. Beaufort, SC pronounced BYOO-furt. Go figure.

We wanted to see a movie in Beaufort SC (byoofurt). Thought it might be fun to just take an afternoon and see something mindless and fun like "Zathura" or something. We were so excited that a movie theater was just across the street from where we were docked. Of course the theater was only showing 3 movies: Saw II, Jarhead, and Doom. Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrified of even the thought of horror movies so Saw II was out. Also having missed the first Saw for similar reasons I figured I might not be able to follow the storyline. And I tend to end up with post traumatic stress disorder after watching war movies (cried, literally sobbed, for 2 hours straight after seeing Black Hawk Down), so no dice for Jarhead. So although I am not a huge fan of shoot-em-up video games I agreed that Doom sounded the best of the three until we checked rottentomatoes.com and saw all the horrible reviews every critic in the nation had given it. So no movie. That's okay, I plan on seeing lots of movies while I'm back in Phx in December.

So now we are in Georgia. Tonight we are at St. Simons Island, but last night we anchored in the Wahoo River. Kevin looked at me as we were heading up there and said "Guess what, tonight we'll be anchoring 'up the Wahoo'." Well, I thought it was funny. ;) That expression will never be the same to me again. And sure enough, who should anchor next to us? Turnabout.

*name has been changed, we know we're gonna run into them again someday.

The trip south -- NJ to NC

We have come a long way since I wrote last, more than 400 miles. At an average speed of 7 miles an hour. I know some of you who can run faster than that. We've actually seen butterflies flying faster than our top speed.

After our stopover in New York we decided to sprint (at 7 miles an hour) down the coast as fast as possible to make up for lost time. New Jersey was, well, it's hard to describe New Jersey. My mom used to say if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. But those of you who know me well know that I've never been one to hold back my opinion. So here it is. We hate New Jersey. Sorry if I offend anyone with an affinity for NJ but after you hear this you'll understand. First of all, at our first anchorage a huge ferry came steaming right through the anchorage, even though there is no channel. And when we called the marina guy to ask him if that was the norm he was very curt and rude. Then, at the second place we stopped we ran aground (stop laughing, Jean). Luckily it was mud so no damage and we didn't get stuck or anything. And in another channel, one of the marker buoys was adrift and the coast guard didn't seem to care. And the worst was one terrifying day with waves of up to 8 feet and a terrible pounding every time we slammed into them. I don't want to scare anyone back at home, but we were pretty unsettled after that day, we definitely don't want to be out in those conditions again. On the plus side we anchored right in the heart of Atlantic City one night right next to Harrahs, and the lights were really pretty. But other than that, we didn't see anything about the famed "Jersey Shore" to tempt us back there again.

From Jersey we went up the Delaware Bay and into the C&D canal which connects the Delaware with the top of Chesapeake Bay. The canal itself was kind of pretty, we had a favorable current pushing us through and pretty soon we arrived in the Chesapeake. We stayed for a week in Annapolis which was a fantastic place with lots to do and see and we also had a chance to get into Washington DC to see the monuments and visit with our friend Carrie. For those of you who don't know her, Carrie has super celebrity spotting powers. While we were in Georgetown we saw a movie being filmed starring Nicole Kidman. Kevin's new zoom lens came in handy and he was able to snap some great shots. Then we went to lunch nearby and sure enough if Nicole wasn't sitting at the table directly behind us. So if next year sometime you guys see a film called "The Visiting" and see the scene with Nicole punching a pay phone, we were there during filming.

After DC we continued south through Norfolk (dodging submarines and Navy jets practicing bombing runs over us) and chose to take the route through the Dismal Swamp Canal. The canal is 22 miles long and has locks at either end. If you look at the photos it was neither dismal nor a swamp. But we did see several homes on stilts, a bunch of "no trespassing signs" and a tin shooting target shaped like a man and riddled with bullet holes(?!). So we knew we were in swamp country and were glad to be going through there on a sunny day. I think I might have heard dueling banjos in the distance.

So now we are in Beaufort North Carolina. It is a beautiful town with a great waterfront. On the way into the docks we saw three pods of dolphins. It is nice to be far enough south to see them again. We are docked next to a massive 70 foot power yacht. There are lots of mega yachts here where we are docked. Our 40 foot boat looks like a dinghy in comparison. Today Kevin's cousin Jeanne came to visit with her husband Bill and daughter Jessica. We had a nice lunch and an ice cream soda afterwards.

Tomorrow we will start up again, heading south down the intracoastal waterway -- we're about halfway to Florida now, the weather is warming up and we are sure appreciating seeing the sunshine again. It was pretty darn cold there for a while, it got down into the 40's inside the boat at night until just the last few days.

The trip south -- RI to NY

Well we are done with the first leg of the trip. Our first stop after leaving RI was Mystic Connecticut. They have a great seafaring/shipbuilding museum there, and of course we did have a highly overrated "slice of heaven" at Mystic Pizza. I imagine that place sells more t-shirts and hats than they do pizza. As I recall the movie that was filmed there (also called "Mystic Pizza") wasn't anything to write home about either, although it did star Julia Roberts before she hit the big time. After the pizza and Seaport museum we headed back to the boat and on to another small highlight of the day -- shore showers. Those of you who live at home connected to a virtually limitless supply of freshwater cannot know how truly lucky you are. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind showering on the boat. In fact we have a very pleasant setup with a separate shower and plenty of hot water. But because we don't want to waste water, taking a shower on board consists of a cycle of turning the water on to get wet, turning the water off to lather up, and then rinsing and repeating. In normal temperatures it's no big deal, but now that we are well into fall, those precious few minutes when the water is off seems like an eternity in a very cold hell. So needless to say, I like shore showers because I can let the water run and be the truly wasteful American that I was born to be. I told Kevin that it felt like I not only washed the dirt off but I also washed my sins away.

Our next stop was Port Jefferson which is only memorable because we came into the port and anchored after dark (our first time trying to navigate based on little red and green flashing lights alone). There were moments of stress but obviously it went okay because we are still here to tell the tale, right? After that it was a couple days in Oyster Bay where we toured the home of Teddy Roosevelt. Let's just say that Teddy liked to kill stuff. A lot. There were dozens of heads, trophies, tusks, skins, in every room of the house, even the kids rooms -- no joke. It made for an interesting tour, but I don't think I could live in a house with all those glass eyes staring me down all the time.

We then spent a night at City Island and waited for the tide the next morning to take us into New York City. We rode the tide down the East River, right past La Guardia, Rikers Island Prison, through Hell Gate, past the UN building, under the Brooklyn Bridge and up into the Hudson River. And of course not only do you have to navigate but you also have to dodge all the ferries and water taxis and tugs with garbage barges etc. It wasn't as nerve wracking as the first time we went through (in May) but we did have to pay close attention. We picked up a mooring at the 79th St. Boat Basin which is on the Hudson at, you guessed it, 79th Street. It was a mile walk to the middle of Central Park, and the subway was just a few blocks from where we were anchored. Plus it was only $30/night. Can't beat that right? We walked till our feet ached, and then walked some more. Surprisingly we ran into my boss from Starwood in line for the Empire State building (what are the odds? small world.). The weather put a huge damper on our trip though. Record rains and windy conditions forced us to stay on the boat several days (it was too risky to attempt to go to shore with the winds and the Hudson current. We quickly found out why the mooring only cost $30 a night!). But in the end we got to see all the major sights and didn't miss out on too much. The highlight of our whole trip by far was getting to see Brooke and Tom on Thursday. I haven't seen anyone from my family since July and with the weather so bad my spirits were pretty low. So even though it was only for a couple of hours, spending time with them was like a little slice of home. Thanks Brooke and Tom for cheering me up!

All in all, New York was a great place despite the rain. I don't mind a little rain, but I sure hope it doesn't decide to rain that hard every time we hit a tourist town. Ironically we are now in New Jersey where we don't particularly have any desire to see anything ashore and it has been as sunny as can be. Hardly a cloud in the sky! But set one foot in the tourist mecca of New York and the sky opens up, dumping record rains by the bucketful. Guess Mother Nature really is fickle.

Our plans are to get to the Chesapeake (Annapolis) by early next week. Can't wait to see Carrie and Dan, Judy and Jim, and George W. and Laura (j.k.). I hope everything is going well for everyone, keep in touch!

Mahthah's Vineyud

We have been having an interesting week, weather-wise. It was rainy on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday was extremely windy (35 mph) as we felt the remains of hurricane Katrina. Luckily our marina is really well protected and we were tied up at the dock during the windstorm.

Last week we had a wonderful, long trip away from the dock. We finally left Rhode Island, even. But I get ahead of myself.

Last Monday, spur of the moment, Kevin said that the weather was going to be good all week and we should take a trip to Martha's Vineyard. The next day we set off and after motoring for 2 hours (no wind) we ended up in Bristol, RI. It's a big-time sailing town, they have a huge Museum dedicated to the old time America's cup winners (from way back in the early part of the 1900's). We stayed there one night and explored a bit of the town (great pubs), then the next day we set off down the Sakonnet River. Nothing very eventful, we anchored among the vineyards and spent a peaceful night.

The following morning, it was on to Massachusetts! It was a good wind and we got some good sailing in. We reached Cuttyhunk in the early afternoon (Cuttyhunk...it's fun to say, try saying it five times really fast). Cuttyhunk is supposed to be this wonderful place, but I thought it was a little overrated. It's basically a small island (you can climb to the top of a hill and see ocean on all sides) with little to appeal to the average tourist. If you like nature and hikes though, it was kind of pretty. But the settlers back in the 1600's chopped down all the trees to build stuff so it's mostly scrub. They have a tiny school (2 students!) and one or two restaurants. Everyone drives around on golf carts or ATV's!

Anyway the next day we motored to Martha's Vineyard (again, no wind...how fickle is Mother Nature!) We had four choices of where to stay with the boat: Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, or Gayhead (okay, they've changed the name to the native american "Aquinnah", but I just like saying "Gayhead" better. Gayhead! Gayhead!). We took a chance on Oak Bluffs and it turned out to be the best decision we could've made. Oak Bluffs has a TINY harbor and you are not allowed to anchor there, but you are required to pick up a mooring. They only have 50 moorings available but they sure know how to pack them in! They require you to "raft", meaning that if you pick up the mooring first, at any time another boat can come alongside you and tie up to your boat (up to 4 boats per mooring). And the people in Oak Bluffs aren't stupid, they charge all the boats the same rate so that even if you have to share a mooring, you still pay full price and so does the other guy. Anyway because our boat is wide we were only "rafted" on one side -- on Friday night it was a yuppie powerboat family and on Saturday night an "old salt" sailboat with an older couple. Both were nice experiences, it kind of forces you to be friendly since it's like you are all sharing a boat for the night.

But anyway, tiny harbor and having to share the mooring aside, Oak Bluffs was the best part of the trip by far! The town got its start back in the 1800's as a Methodist revival camp. They would go there once a year and set up tents and get saved. As time evolved, people started building tiny "tent-houses" on their parcel of land, all crammed in right next to their neighbor. Then, with the invention of the jigsaw, all these tiny houses were decorated with this fancy trimwork and started giving the impression of gingerbread. They painted them whimsical colors and gave them names like "Heartsease" and "Valentine". I was completely overwhelmed when we started walking around and realized that it wasn't just one street, but that there were 300 of these little houses all clustered together on these narrow streets. Kevin and I felt like we were in some kind of Disneyland attraction. Kevin joked that whoever ran the paint store on the island must be rolling in dough. You'll have to look at the pictures to really get an idea, but if you are ever on Martha's Vineyard it is a "must see".

The rest of the island was very quaint. The other good town, Edgartown, was more swanky. This was where all the old whaling captains built their mansions. In contrast to the crayola colors of Oak Bluffs, most of the buildings here were painted white (that paint guy really has a good thing going) and meticulously maintained. The homes are all stately and very posh, and most of the shops were pretty upscale. It was a pretty town, and most tourists stay there but I preferred the kitschy charm of Oak Bluffs.

It took us four days of sailing/motoring to get to "the Vineyard". and we had hoped to go on to Nantucket and Hyannis Port (c'mon, say it like a Kennedy, you know you want to!) but unfortunately weather got in the way. On Saturday night we checked the forecast and it predicted bad weather starting Monday. So we had one day to get as close to our home port as possible. Sunday was a beautiful sailing day and we got an early start. We had hoped to get 1/2way home but the wind was so good we ended up sailing the entire way (57 miles). We left Martha's Vineyard at 8:30 and were safely at our dock in Warwick by 6pm. We have pictures posted on the web if you want to check them out: http://photobucket.com/albums/b186/solsticecatamaran/

Geez, sorry I always write a book, hope my travelogues aren't too boring! In other news, Kevin grew a great fuzzy beard in 3 weeks (but shaved it off yesterday without telling me). Hopefully you can see it in the pictures, though. We are looking forward to having Carrie and Dan out this weekend, the weather is supposed to be fine with a nice cool North wind.