Exumas!

 Hi everyone!

Dramatic change in the weather and we are anchored for our third night in the Exumas. We got Britt off to the airport on Thursday morning and we were all very sad to see her go. She spent a month and a half on board with me and was just great! Can't recommend her highly enough should she end up crewing on another boat.

We did a few errands ashore and were back on the boat around 1PM. Mary asked, "why don't we head out now for the Exumas.?" I considered it for a nanosecond and said sure. We motored out to Porgee Rock since the wind was on the nose and set sail for a beat to windward. After an hour or so it was evident we would be unable to negotiate the reefs on the Yellow Banks so we fired up the engine. We managed to get through the narrowest section of coral heads just before dark. Barely visible in the fading light but you could see them from up on the mast. The wind was light out of the SE and we continued motoring for another couple of hours, with lights visible in the distance. As we got closer the wind picked up and we hoisted the main, killing the engine. I was reluctant to hoist the job, having not set up jacklines and safety harnesses so we beat to windward with just the main, anchoring under sail around 11. We were in the lee of Allan's Cay. The area looked like a convention of megayachts, with at least a dozen in the general area. Highborn Cay seems to be their hangout. Fortunately for us lowbornes they are too big to get into the good anchorages and so we motored in and anchored in the absolute best spot right off the iguana beach.

Malachi was enchanted with everything and I had forgotten how spectacularly clear the water is. We had a really great day and a peaceful night at anchor. Today we did some snorkeling and some boat chores before heading out the short distance to Highborne. We hauled up the sail, pulled the anchor, and sailed out, something that is seldom done these days though it was a piece of cake. We ran out on to the Banks a ways, then hardened up and beat up to Highborne. Anchored under sail but decided there was too much surge and current so I ran the engine for a short bit and reanchored further north. It's New Years Eve and we will likely go into the beach and hang out with other cruisers in a bit.

Happy New Year everyone!

Charlie