Most of the days spent in Little Harbour Cay from Dec 19 to Dec 24 were spent relaxing. We didn’t have much internet, but enough to get our a few emails before the internet went away. actually, I didn’t expect any but way in the distance we could see the Batelco tower with diffuse light shining upward in the dark sky we had at night before the almost full moon rose.

Thursday, Dec 19 we took the dinghy to land and walked on a rough path to the east side of the island hoping to get some shells and “beans” from Africa but none were to be seen. We went towards the cut out I to the sound with the dinghy, but I was getting splashed from a combo of the incoming tide and the 11-12kt easterly winds. After lunch of reheated pork dish, I polished the pressure cooker, tea pot and sink with SS polish and metal wax as especially the pressure cooker was getting rusty.

I made Bahamian oat bread in the afternoon while Phil napped and then we took it to Jo and Mark’s boat Truant for happy hour. Merydei and Ken from SV. Quick Sticks rounded out the guest list. Jo and Mark had just finished eat dinner so there wasn’t other food besides the banana bread I brought.

I’ve been able to get Chris Park on SSB 4045 very well out here most of the time until it gets close to 730am when his speech gets garbled.

Friday, Dec 20

This morning I was able to have very slow internet on the iPad through the data plan I have, but not enough to do banking online. SV Charisma arrived and Jo did the happy dance on his arrival. He said that there was 1.5′ under his keel at half tide going the back route from Cabbage Cay up to little Harbour Cay. Phil changed the zinc on the prop shaft, having a much easier time with the clear Bahamian waters. It was last changed in St. Augustine by the diver so we wonder why it’s getting used up faster. While Phil was working on that, I started working on inputting the pattern for Katie’s sweater into Knit Companion app then started knitting the body.

Our big adventure for the day was taking 2 dinghies over to the Blue hole on Hoffman Cay a little north of here. job rode with us while Mark, Marydei and Ken rode with Bill in his bigger dinghy. Once we found the beach and the path, it didn’t take long to reach the Blue hole. Many people jump in from the top,of,the rocks, but we went down the hairpin path and all jumped in to swim. The water is warm and VERY salt making floating easy. There were ferns in the area to crawl out, which I didn’t like. I was able to get a group photo using my gorilla pod both looking in under the overhang and from up top with the water in the background. After back at the boat later in the afternoon, Bill invited us all over for potluck dinner to use up some of the beef he had to cook when he had refrigeration problems, now fixed. He was fancy using bone China plate for the layered Mexican Dip I made. We had an enjoyable time but it was very dark going back to Changes as we had forgotten to put on the mast light so as difficult to see her. We use MV Out Post’s lights to,guide us initially until we could make about a darker shape in the darkness.

Saturday December 21

Phil went to burn trash at a fire pit the next cay north while I made Tuscan Lentil Salad for this evening. The wind is to be clocking to the SE SE we raised anchor and moved closer to shore. About noon, we shared dinchies again going down to Chester’s by Cabbage Cay going over the flats that were just high enough to get over with the dinghy. Our return trip will be longer in the deeper water. Chester’s is a bar restaurant in a link building on the hill. In order to eat here, you need to give Chester 3 hrs before you want to eat so that he can get your order. We decided to have a farewell dinner on Monday late afternoon. Phil and I were concern about about the timing as we all need to get the dinghy on deck so that we can leave early enough. After some discussion, Bill agreed to pick us up in his dinghy and. Schedule it for 4pm instead of the original 5pm. I’ve been doing real good drinking water and no colas, so had a diet Coke. This evening, we had cocktails at Quick Sticks. Marydei has pretty little dishes for serving the different foods. They own a Bristol 29.9 sailboat. This time we remembered the mast light and the red lights from the galley and chart table, so no problems getting back. After Phil went to bed, I worked on setting up the entire front row for Katie’s sweater. It took forever as the program was slow, but I got it done.

Sunday, December 22

This will be our last day here in Little Harbour Cay. Tomorrow as close to,high tide as we can convince bill to leave! we will go the inner route to Cabbage Cay to stage going to Nassau on Tuesday. He says that he know the route and that there should be plenty of water for our draft going at 1pm though high tide is 12 noon.

While Phil was sleeping in, I swept the cabin sole and picked up on preparation to having cocktails on Changes tonight unless Our Post invites everyone to their boat. The guys are going hunting for lobster at a rock the Bill says gas several lobster there. We can’t wait for high tide, so they left at 1030am for slack tide. While they were going, I worked on the first three rows. It’s a little complicated getting the pattern set and the markers in place so,that it goes more easily.

Today was my day to have cocktails on Changes. I made potato skins which everyone seem to enjoy. We made it an early night as we are moving tomorrow to Cabbage Cay. Bill on SV Charisma said that he knows the deep channel out inside, so we’ll follow him.

Monday, December 23

Happy Birthday Mom! Unfortunately here we do not have enough cell phone signal to call or email.

We spent the morning having breakfast, knitting and Phil putting duck tape on our noodle floats on the dinghy painter. We raised anchor along with Charisma, Truant, and Quick Sticks at 1242pm after high tide. I watched the track and marked down waypoints on iNavX in my iPad in the hope that we would have it for future use. Unfortunately, we ran aground but good. There were 2′ waves pushing us onto the shallow area. Phil kept the engine in high RPM’s with me thinking that it wasn’t going to help. But phil saw that each wave was lifting us just enough to. I’ve us along and after what seemed like,hours but was more like 10min, we got off. Relief! Truant and Quick Sticks planned to come back in dinghies as they past 20 ft off our port, so we were glad they didn’t have to. We decided to pass anchoring at Cabbage Cay and went across the cut entrance to High Cay. There was no way we could go,across the cut with the 1.5-2 ft waves, so call Chester to cancel our dinner. We were safely anchored at 149pm but then Truant’s engine stopped. We were just to frazzled to think about going back, bit Charisma and Quick Sticks stayed with them, and after a little while, Truant got the engine going again. In hind sight, we should have just gone outside through the cuts to the new anchorage, or stayed where we were but since Bill had gone the same route to get here, we thought it would be safe to follow him back.

I had gotten seasick, so rested and when I woke, the new sickness was gone and the wind had decreased. By 4pm, it was calm enough for us to gem the dinghy engine off and the dinghy up on the foredeck in preparation for our passage to Nassau tomorrow. The other three boats were able to go to the fair well dinner at Chester’s.

Tuesday, December 24, Christmas Eve

We started the engine at 635am after 3 tries to turn over, raised anchor at 650am and was out of the channel by 7am in 2 kts of wind. By my watch at 915am the winds had increased to 4-5 kts with 4′ swells from the east. I started trolling for fish by 1020am and caught a small barracuda at 1145, only to lose him 20 ft from the boat. Oh well. Saved us from having to take him off the hook and toss him back. By 1215pm I had a good enough cell phone signal to call Mom. For her birthday and brought in the fishing lines at 1229. We had the Cruise ship Serenade of the Seas that came up and passed us and was in the Harbour by the time we entered at 1233pm. By 111pm we were tied up at Nassau Yacht Haven Marina so the on Boxing day we could go to Junkanoo easily. It’s $2/ ft, $10 for water per day for as much as you want and $10/day for electric which we declined.

Once there we went to the grocery store, Fresh Market, the BTC. Store for more minutes, to Nassau Dive store, right at the Marina for new snorkel for me, and new booties for both of us. I guess our feet have grown from Small to Med size.

We relaxed on the boat and enjoyed pork, potatoes and fresh broccoli.