2-24-10 Still on a mooring in Little Farmers Cay, Exuma. The weather is blowing up again and we have an anchor dropped as well as the mooring for tonight's blow out of the Northwest. Ken and Bill have gone fishing. They now have the inside knowledge that they should simplify their technique and use a hand line with some conch as bait. Soooo, we'll see. Francie and I took Skipper and explored the island yesterday while Bill was watering the boats and Ken and Chris had made the 4 mile trip to Cave Cay for gas. There is no gasoline here. During our exploration we found JR's Carvings. He had various island mementos including Bahama Papa, Bahama Mama, a Peel Owl and the native parrot. They were all carved from green Wild (sounds like) Tamerin wood (is that right Geoff??). It is the same wood they use for the ribs of boat hulls. Once it dries JR says it is very hard, but does not split. It also gets lighter in color. JR also is the public works department for the island roads (3). We also checked out the island school - one room for all grades through high school. However, when talking with the natives, they will tell you most of the children go to Nassau for high school and higher education. They usually live with relatives or friends. Bil and Ken found us shelling on the beach and treated us to lunch at the yacht club. There were no boats at the yacht club and no diners in the restaurant. Not a very booming place. However, the crack conch was yummy and as I hadn't seen anything green for awhile so was the salad. We continue to hope to continue North along the Exuma Bank side of the Exumas, weather permitting. The storms are blowing up from the Northwest every couple of days and there is no protection for us for a ways for storms in that direction, so we continue to wait for our window. Fortunately, it is a beautiful place to be




2-25-10 As expected, it was a wild night, high winds and hard rains. Today is still very windy, but sunny. The morning was spent by all checking moorings, anchors, etc. There was some shifting and right now our anchor is bearing the burden of Snow Goose. Bill and Ken caught one fish yesterday and ended up throwing it back since there was only one. I stayed onboard with the boat and was entertained by watching all the other cruisers come in and try to anchor. Dana was in his dinghy trying to help My Whim catch. Bill and Ken came in and helped Amity (from Brunswick, ME) untangle his anchor and mooring lines pushing his boat around in circles with the dinghy. Then they dropped Release's anchor 80 ft. NW and Snow Goose's anchor in the same direction. Terry Bain who owns our mooring and others around

was out making sure all was well. Little Jeff, also a mooring owner, sent out a diver to check anchors. We use the looky pail to check ours. I did get off the boat with Francie and Skipper and met Bill and Ken to show them the carver's shed. We made some purchases. Also picked up a bag of ice and rode back in the dinghy against the sea getting very wet.



2-26-10 Bill's eyes are bothering him today - swollen - and he needs to see about his prescriptions. So he will stay aboard and see the doctor at the clinic who is supposed to arrive between 2 and 3 today. I went exploring with Release in their dinghy in very shallow areas around Musha Cay and Cave Cay. We hit a number of beaches and did some conch hunting. I found a beautifu Queen Helmet conch shell. The day was fun. However, the doctor never showed and Bill's eyes are very bad.





The nurse showed up and was actually very thorough. She gave Bill antihistamine and eye drops for his eyes, filled three of his four heart prescriptions, gave him a medicated shampoo and a cream for the itch and rash he has developed. All this for $46.00. Just unbelieveable! We took the computer to the yacht club after the clinic visit and had lunch while we use the wifi and Bill downed his medication. I went for a swim off the boat in the afternoon and washed one side of the hull. The supply boat did come in around 2 pm so we went back into town with the dinghy around 4 and picked up what we could find - still slim pickings. Cereal is corn flakes; milk is boxed; bread is Wonder; no greens of any kind; however there were carrots; papaya, bananas, oranges and native potatoes (I couldn't understand when they told me the name - long very dark brown with thick skin). We also found the fishermen on the pier who had just come in and purchased 6 snapper and other varieties (Little Jeff reeled the names of the fish off, but he was difficult to understand). Anyway, we shared our catch with Release and Highheeled. Had cocktails with Highheeled and Release in the evening.



3-2-10 Sunday we visited the clinic again to get antibiotics. Bill's eyes were not a whole lot better. Monday brought improvement and we decided to go north to Black Point, hoping there were more supplies. We dropped the anchor around noon time following Release and Higheeled into the harbor. Did lunch, laundry and shopping in the afternoon. I loved Black Point settlement the first time we were here, and enjoyed the people as much again. A native fisherman pulled his boat along side Snow Goose in the early evening to see if we could pick him up at his boat mooring and take him to shore. He told us not to try to ride out Wednesday's weather out of the Northwest in the harbor. We had intended to go further north to Staniel Cay, but other boats in the harbor told us Staniel was full. So a cruiser's meeting concluded we had to go South on Tuesday to White Point, a suggested refuse from the native fisherman. This morning we did just that and here we are in a little hidey hole with better protection. The weather has just been a hinderance to our progress North, and we are not seeing what we had hoped. However, no snow here!



3-3-10 Holding wasn't good at White Point and the wind was howling and the sea rocking. We did take the dinghy in to a beautiful beach for a couple of hours to do some shelling and explore. You could see iguana tracks, but it was too windy and cold for them to show themselves. But about 4 pm with all anchors dragging, Higheeled, Release and Snow Goose headed back to Black Point. About 9 the front hit with a thunderstorm and we rocked all night with high seas and winds. I was rudely awakened in the night by a flood of sea water coming into the V berth port I had opened beside my bed. In the morning we felt like we had fought a battle all night. No sleep, trying to stay in the berth, and many anchor checks. Today all day same thing. The winds are 28 to 30 mph and the seas very high. There are four cruisers and one fishing boat here in the harbor. However, our anchor has held where others have not, so we're safe. There was no leaving the boat today though. Poor Skipper has been on the boat for 24 hours without shore time although they just took him in with life jacket on. It is still very rough at 5 pm. I will be glad to have tomorrow come and the weather to calm down. We have been trying some of the Bahamian foods. Last night we had beef patties - spices and ground beef inside a corn meal and flour pastry tart. Very good.



3-4-10 The seas are still high and the wind around 20 mph, but enough is enough and we headed for Staniel Cay this morning. It was another sleepless night between anchor watch and trying to stay in the berth. Rough ride to Staniel, but we're here and anchored in protection from the NW winds. It is nice not to be rocking!! We actually could get a meal too. Holding the coffee pot and soup pot on the stove was getting old. We will hang here tomorrow and let the seas calm down. The rest of the week and first of next week are predicted to be nice weather. Bill is changing the engine oil and I put the boat back together this morning - every time you opened a door all inside fell out. We'll explore and go to shore this afternoon. The supply ship came in so we'll hit that and they sell block ice here. What fun!