Sunday, January 26th to Friday, February 7th, 2014

We arrive back on Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas on Sunday, January 26th. Silver Maple is in the water there waiting for us. It is beautiful and sunny with a temperature of 78 degrees F., and it stays that way pretty much for days. Apparently, before we arrived was cold and rainy. Looks like we brought the good weather!

We spend the first few days cleaning and prepping the boat. Then, on Tuesday, January 28th, we do the passage called “The Wale” from Green Turtle to Marsh Harbour. It is lovely and calm in the morning when we head out. Perfect for an ocean passage — in fact we could use a bit more wind for sailing. No complaints. Its a beautiful day and great to be back on the water.

On Friday, Jan 31st, Deb and Joe from Chicago (Cary, IL), arrive for a one week visit. They settle right in with a swim at the pool and cocktails on the boat. We take the next week with them to revisit all the sites in the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas that we enjoyed so much last year.

Deb and Joe leave on Thursday, February 6th to head back to the cold and snowy north. We spend the day preparing for our trip south to the Exuma Islands in the southern Bahamas. Our original plan was to leave Marsh Harbour on Saturday, February 8th to do the first ocean crossing to get south, but a weather window has opened today so we are heading out now instead. We will be on the water and anchoring for about 3 weeks, so will be out of touch and without internet until we reach civilization again. That will probably be in Georgetown, Bahamas at the end of February.  Cheers to everyone and happy sailing!