We have been sailing up and down a small string of islands from Great Guana to Compass Cay. When the winds blow out of the north we head south and do the reverse in a few days, stopping at new places each trip. The winds have been so cooperative we are sailing all the way into and out of anchorages. These short trips give us great practice trimming sails and we are not burning expensive diesel fuel. In lighter winds we put up all sails but in heavier winds we have taken a liking to mizzen and head sail only. With those two sails up the boat remains balanced, we still reach six knots, and we do not feel overpowered.

It’s not all fun and games though and the weather can get nasty from time to time. Ok it’s fun and games most of the time but not all… We still have to fix, maintain and polish things, do laundry, get food (tougher than you think), get fuel (even tougher sometimes), deal with communication issues, forecast the weather, plan trips, cook, clean and once in a while put on the scuba gear and scrub the bottom; fun. Not complaining, “just sayin.”

Water pump rebuild:

Fun:

I do laundry also…

We love boat pizza:

Then off to the nearest settlement to get the things we need. This happened to be Staniel Cay:

Walking to the phone company:

To the BTC office to buy more data so we can update the website…and check facebook:

Then back to the Yacht Club for a beer:

And a look at the sharks:

Some of them are pretty big, swimming around looking for handouts:

Then back in the dinghy and head north to Big Majors Spot to feed scraps to the pigs. When they see you coming they swim right out:

And of course there are piglets:

And some big pigs:

When the winds blow in a different direction we head to a new spot. We like civilization but we love to find secluded spots with empty beaches:

We explore the area in the dinghy so we can find the best spots to snorkel and fish:

Our only visitor was this large ray:

He was about four feet across:

Dea Latis from the beach:

Sometimes we hike over the islands to the ocean side to comb the beaches. Once in a while we find these sea beans, some are heart shaped others look like hamburgers:

In a few days the winds change direction and we head to another beautiful spot. If our next bit of paradise is just a few miles away we just drag the dinghy:

We are a couple of updates behind and have two days of nasty weather coming so…should be able to get caught up soon.

We’re still here, so to speak. We have been bouncing up and down the Exuma Islands having a blast and therefore neglecting our website. While waiting for parts to be flown in we made it a point to visit and see places we have not seen before. We have been having such a good time in these new places, met new people, seen old friends, but now we are on our way again. We received our parts today (Thanks Bob/Dad!), looks like a weather window is open to head south tomorrow. We will begin our journey south and probably stop at Lee Stocking Island for a few days waiting for another weather window to Georgetown. Hopefully we will make it to Long Island during the first week of February and the Jumentos soon after.

We will update with pictures when we reach Georgetown in about a week. No internet between here and there.

Follow our progress by clicking on the Position Report tab!

We are back in Internet land, or waters. We are anchored in Big Majors Spot adjacent to Staniel Cay. The cay has all the amenities one needs, airport, yacht club www.stanielcay.com check it out, groceries, phone and internet. What else do you need besides an airport and internet? Anyway…it has been blowing 20+ knots out of the northeast for about 24 hours, we had gusts nearing gale force several times. The anchorage here is perfect, Dea Latis is heavy, and the waves were no more than a foot. With anchor buried firmly in the bottom we dangled gently on our taught anchor chain and attacked our chore list. With winds out of the north the temps dropped rapidly plunging into the upper sixties so we finished up the day with awesome turkey chili and cornbread! I woke up this morning, have a fresh pot of coffee, sea is calm, sun rising, eight knots of East wind, and everyone is starting to venture out. I can hear the roosters…roostering…there are pigs on the beach (yup, Google pig beach), people are chatting from deck to deck and dinghys are buzzing about. The start of a wonderful day.

 We took hundreds of pictures but data is expensive so I picked out a few of the better ones.

We were just getting ready to pull up anchor one morning and a bird dropped in for breakfast. I’m sure he eats rather well by making his rounds:

We stopped at Shroud Cay which is in a national park. There is a beautiful creek running west-east which cuts the north end of the island in two. We took the dinghy through to the end.

Mangroves:

East end:

Overlooking the beach on the east side:

Looking west over the creek:

Dea Latis anchored at Shroud Cay:

In many places we have to share anchorage with mega yachts. In an effort to entertain their guests they are sometimes very inconsiderate. This yacht, about 120ft, picked up anchor and ran aground right behind us.  The brown stain in the water is remnants of their intrepid seamanship. Karma is vicious so we didn’t gloat very long.

Another megayacht, with slide:

I don’t care about the boat but would love to use the slide just once:

This one was 375 feet long, with helicopter on the aft deck:

From Shroud we headed south to Hawksbill Cay which was breathtaking.

Perfect beach:

Our next stop was Warderick Wells, headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Www.exumapark.org, another breathtaking place. We went hiking and snorkeling and chased sharks. Headquarters:

Hiking:

Butterfly beach:

Dea Latis just to the left of the building on the right:

After hiking we went swimming:

Random lizard:

My gopro doesn’t take the best pictures…  Nurse shark:

coral:

School of fish in trail:

Coral, yellow and blue fish:

Six foot reef shark from above:

Dove down for a better look:

Grouper under the coral:

Grouper and other fish under the coral:

Swimming with a school of small fish:

Herding the fish:

Tiny yellow fish:

From Warderick Wells we headed south to Big Majors/Staniel Cay, which is where we are now. There are pictures from our previous visit somewhere on our site. We took the dinghy in to check out the recent renovations. There are sharks everywhere around the docks. And one under our dinghy. Tail on one side:

Head on the other:

We have been without fresh food for sometime and it just so happened the supply boat had just offloaded.

We headed over to Isles General Store and hit paydirt.

Fresh food!! Veggies, eggs, yogurt, mmmmmm!

Steak and grilled veggies that night, awesome omelet next morning and a huge salad for lunch!!!

Well that’s it for now. We are going to up-anchor in a bit and head south to Black Point to wash sheets (bed) and jeans, go out to eat, find coconut bread, and hide from yet another weather front.