NO WIFI IN PARADISE.............................

After four days of incredibly strong winds in Nassau harbour we finally got away, but not before a night of wild anxiety as a Belgian yacht with two anchors out, dragged down on us. All the horn blowing and lights flashing failed to wake them up and when they finally did, they discovered that one of their anchor lines was wrapped around their propellor. This is truly "every sailor's nightmare". It all ended well with the guy in his PJs diving underneath his yacht to cut the line off. Now if that doesn't wake you up nothing will............. By morning we were off to the Exumas, a beautiful chain of islands south of Nassau, but not before getting that load of washing done in town. Washing clothes takes on a whole new meaning when you walk into a laundromat and no matter where you stand the photo won't get all the machines in. This was the mother of all laundromats. Ball-park figure 200 washer driers. The first of the islands was "ALLEN'S CAY", 35 miles from Nassau with a population of iguanas the size of miniature dogs and just as inquisitive.



Supposedly native to the island, these herbivorous iguanas are not found anywhere else in the Bahamas except neighbouring islands, and we cant't help but feel that perhaps some vessel carrying specimens from Galapagos ran aground somewhere in the long distant past. Who knows............... We all conjectured the origin of the species as the sun set over "ALLEN'S CAY" and what a sunset.............



The weather report brings news of another vicious front coming through with expected winds of 35 knots. Then again, this is winter and to the north of us all 'hell' has broken loose without the furnace. We move to find a better anchorage at "WARDERICK WELLS CAY" even though motoring down there is on a perfect day of glass, smooth enough to allow the "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" to prepare a magnificent mango-enriched salad for lunch, while underway. Glenn on "TREEHOUSE" follows us down to anchor in a near perfect lagoon.



Within 18 hours this idyllic piece of paradise is transformed into a raging whirlpool as the winds usher in from the Artic north. The afternoon saw us walking the beaches exploring the limestone sinkholes, the sperm whale skeleton erected on the beach, this former longboat (or shortboat) that needs its caulking cotton replaced, and then by nightfall, we were hunkered down waiting to see how the wind would blow and shift. It stayed at over twenty knots for three days solid, but we are in PARADISE as Laurie will tell you, the moment she surfaces from under the blanket in the cockpit..................... Yes, we are in PARADISE. Paradise found and abruptly lost...................