MARCH 16 - 27 FIRST HALF OF TRIP: 2200 MILES, SECOND HALF: ?

Proud fisherwoman with catch, off Nassau



Recess at Black Pt. Primary School



"Slaughter", a local racing boat in Black Pt., Exumas

March 17 Technically we are heading back, because we have gone as far south as we want to go. We still have some places to see that we didn’t see on the way down and we should be more direct on our way back, as we’re not planning any side trips (like our diversion to the Florida Keys in January and February). In general our first “half” took 6 months and our second “half” should take about 3 months.

The first week of our return trip we went to Black Point in the Exumas. It is about half way along the Exuma chain and is a small, friendly, non-commercial island settlement. Most of the houses in the center of the settlement have a couple of ladies sitting outside in the shade of a tree plaiting grass strips. We also saw one man doing this and he said they sell the strips to Nassau. There is a “laundermat” and a grocery store, a grade 1-8 school, a police station, and two restaurants here. We followed up on a sign posted at the laundermat and volunteered to tutor in the school for two mornings. Ken had Gregory on the first day, a first grader with a very soft voice; I had Tyrelle, an 8th grade girl who needed remedial work in math and reading. The second day we both worked with 4th grade boys. There were 3-4 other boaters each day who also were volunteering. We went outside with all the children at recess (40 children in the 8 grades). Ken was the goalkeeper for an impromptu soccer game with the little ones!

In Black Point we tried sopadillo fruit. It looks a little like a kiwi and tastes like a dense, very sweet peach, but with no juice. We also got more fresh bread from the mother of Lorene at Lorene’s Restaurant. It smelled so good we had to have some as soon as we got back to the boat, even though it was 5:30 pm and normally we would have been having rum punch and some crackers and cheese.

March 21 Continuing north we sailed to a few favorite stops from three weeks ago. We are seeing some familiar boats, including LOS GATEOWS, a cruising family from New Hampshire with 3 young girls. Debbie and Mike are home-schooling the 2 older girls and the day we saw them this week they had a surprise “field trip” day for their students -- translation: snorkeling and exploring the trails in the Exuma Park at Warderick Wells. We went aboard their boat that night. They have a catamaran and it is very wide, with two pontoons on either side of a large main cabin. Each pontoon has a bathroom and one side also has two bedrooms while the other side has one bedroom and an office. The main cabin has a large galley, a raised counter with bar stools (!) and an upholstered L-shaped settee and dining table. The flat-screen TV is on the dining side of the cabin. There’s also a back deck, maybe 10 ft. wide off the stern of the boat. Pretty comfortable!

We snorkeled a few times during this part of our trip and at one point I noticed there was a 5 ft shark cruising along going the same way I was, maybe 25 ft. away from me. I kept an eye on him/her and kept on snorkeling on the reef. There are little yellow-breasted birds here. They are friendly and come land on your hand if you hold it out. Even better if you have sugar in your hand! Ken had seven at one time feeding from his palm! Our fishing has still been coming up with little results, but yesterday I caught a Spanish mackerel. We had it for dinner last night, just enough to feed two people and delicious.

March 26 We had two great sails the past two days, as it is still quite windy but now in a good direction for sailing. We are now in Nassau at a marina, and plan to head for the Abacos in the next day or so. We haven’t been in a city of this size since Fort Lauderdale in December. There are great stores across the street from the marina and Paradise Island is across the harbor, with it’s large hotels and casinos. In this small marina there is a sailboat from Marshfield and a trawler from Hingham.

We are starting to get a little homesick after almost 6 months on the boat; of course, daydreaming of home is easier since most of the bitter cold weather must be gone by now! We should be winding up our time in the Bahamas in the next few weeks and plotting our passage back across the Gulf Stream for the U.S. We look forward to it being easier to keep in touch with friends and family, but it has been very nice to be in warm weather and in warm company here in the Bahamas.