SIGNS OF SUMMER AT LAST........................................

Every time we put the dinghy in the water and go ashore we see the plants in full bloom and there is colour everywhere................ Brilliant vibrant colours..... a real contrast to the stark grey colour of the hard coral rock and a perfect blend against blue water and blue sky..................... These islands are a painter's paradise, despite the fact that the colours look too good to be true.......... but the photographs do not lie................ It really is magnificent and truly overwhelming.

The bouganvilleas are easy to recognize and we are trying to find the names of others that we have not previously seen...............Like this huge oak-like tree in Nassau in magnificent soft pink blossoms............You have to stand beneath it and it will take your breath away.........



Sailing through these islands and cays in water rarely more than 12 feet deep, is an experience in itself................Patches of sea-grass are hard to distinguish from soft corals, but the rock edges of the islands and reefs are totally unforgiving................. and so far...........all is good.



Now for something completely different..........." WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ALL" Our latest chart-plotter, (below left) is this beautiful colour screen monitor, that has the built-in ability to take a video input......... So now, while sailing (or motoring), we can play a DVD through our stereo unit with a video feed going to the chartplotter and audio sound to the speakers in the cockpit........... And we can have the video in the corner of the screen or on full page, or even on 'auto', where like a commercial break on TV, it will do a quick show of the chart and your course, and then back to the movie...............We were watching the "EAGLES FAREWELL TOUR" while doing some touring ourselves................ We call this " REAL KEWL "............... The down-side of this is that if you get too lost in the movie, the scenery around you may stop changing.........and we guess you know what that means.......

On the right is a new addition under the floor....... Producing electricity is on a par with producing water........ The red belt is driven by the propellor shaft to a lay shaft which in turn drives two alternators, which in turn put a nice charge back into the batteries.............. When we are sailing, the propellor shaft will begin to rotate when we do more than two knots...................and for running the chartplotter, the navigation lights, the autopilot and listening to great music during the night, nothing beats free electricity.........



THEN AGAIN IF YOU HAD UNLIMITED MONEY AND A ZEST FOR SPEED............. this might be more your style......We saw what was presumably the owner and his female companion, and six crew members doing the doing.............



But our preference is for the quieter sailing life, and serenity of a different kind........ Here is the breadfruit tree so famously brought over by Captain Bligh to the islands and on the left with breadfruit in the making, and the "baby mangoes" growing strongly on the right...............And some flowers and shrubs that reflect the beauty of this paradise.............



And Laurie bids farewell to Shauna, a long time friend, in the straw market in Nassau, who incidentally said.......... "surely you must be B'aimian by now"....



Then again everything is relative............ for above is " THE GARDEN OF EDEN", so labelled on the island of Guana, south of Stanial Cay in the Exumas".......