It was a very quick trip home this past weekend but an incredibly satisfying visit!! Evelyn is now a PhD and Caroline is enjoying her new job! We had a fabulous dinner with Mark’s Dad, Caroline, Evelyn and Liam (Evelyn’s partner). All in all it was an awesome trip home but now it’s time to make some serious distance!! Turks & Caicos is calling!
We arrived back at the private dock on Sunday, Feb. 4 around 2pm and saw that another sailboat had come in and was rafted beside us. It turned out that a third sailboat was coming in so we were being moved from the dock position to the outside position (because we were leaving before the other 2 boats). It wasn’t difficult to reverse from the dock and get out of the way so the second boat could be pulled to the dock. The new arrival moved into the middle spot and then we slowly came along side them. We are tied to the middle sailboat with spring lines and also to the dock and shore with a bow line and stern line – nice and secure! This 3 abreast set-up means Mark and I have to walk over 2 other boats to get to shore – not my favourite thing to do!! The last boat (the one tied to the dock) is in rough shape and their decks are very cluttered which makes it challenging to cross.
Early in the week, we had decided to stay until Thursday (Feb. 8) because of weather (it was a very good decision). Starting Tuesday and continuing today, the Bahamas has had some crazy high winds! On Tuesday night some places saw hail and wind gusts of 65 knots. Our friends Jane and Steve are in the Exumas and they lost a solar panel in the storm that night. We’ve been super lucky here because we are so sheltered that we haven’t experienced any really high winds.
It’s been awhile since we’ve done a large grocery shopping (basically since we left the USA) so our fridge was pretty empty when we got back. We teamed up with our rafting partners (the boat beside us), Caroline and Mario (from Montreal) and rented a car from a friend of the dock owner, Carolyn. On Tuesday we drove into Nassau and bought lots of produce and other yummy items. We also stopped at a liquor store on our way back!! It’s really nice having access to a car – last night we had pizza from Dominos. Mark and Mario picked it up!!
Our plan now is to leave here around 8am tomorrow morning (Feb. 8th) and head to Hawksbill Cay. We’ll continue to move south the next day and stop at Staniel Cay. We probably won’t have any wifi at Hawksbill because it is inside the Exuma Land and Sea park (no cell towers), but we’ll be back in business once we reach Staniel.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 