Heading North

We said goodbye to George Town March 5th, and set our sails to head north in a soft SW breeze, perfect for sailing to Cave Cay in the Exumas. After nearly a month in George Town we were needing some new horizions, and some quiet harbors. There were over 400 boats in the harbor when we left!

We sailed north with our friend Harrison, on his boat Strider. When we arrived at Black Point, his mainsail would not come down, and even after two trips up the mast while at anchor there we could not get it down. At night the wind came up and his mainsail was damaged badly when it tore on his spreaders. Sadly his trip ended, and he headed back to the US singlehanded as his boat needed repairs done before he could continue on.


Preston's 49th birthday was spent in Staniel Cay, as he wanted a steak dinner for his birthday present. Harrison on Strider joined us before he left for the states. It was great as usual at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.






We encountered our own mechanical problems in Staniel Cay last week. Our depth sounder decided to start doing wacky things, turning off and on, putting up some weird characters on the display. Preston took it all apart, down to the circuit boards, checked all the connections, washed down the board with electronics cleaner and it started to work a bit better. So we decided to sail across Exuma Sound, in over 5000 feet of water most of the time (no need to have a depth sounder) to visit our friends Buddy and Abbie who run Princess Cays at the south end of Eleuthera Island.

We are at Princess Cays, where Princess Cruise Lines brings their passengers for a 6 hour beach party a few days a week. Already there have been 4 ships here since we arrived last Friday. The ships unload about 4000 people each time. We've not been around large groups of people for months, and it's a bit overwhelming!!!

Wy'East will head further north up the coast of Eleuthera most likely next Monday the 22nd of March, where we'll rendevouz with our friend John at Governors Harbor, who is bringing a replacement depth sounder display for us!!

The next post will be from the Abacos Islands, where we'll be near Hope Town, Marsh Harbor and Treasure Cay.

Enjoy the pictures!

Chennie and Preston
Aboard Wy'East @
24.388 lat
-76.095 long

Hanging out in George Town

We are still hanging out here in George Town... We thought we would be here a week or two, but we've been here 3 weeks as of yesterday.

We've had some weather that has prevented us from moving north, but mostly we are enjoying the beaches, swimming, opening coconuts on the beach and cruising around in our dinghy.
We have seen lots of people here we've met along the way, who keep arriving daily. It's about 85 everyday and getting warmer.

Last night we had a great dinner aboard "Puff", another Tartan 37. Dave and Kathy Rizzo are from New Jersey, and we have known them since we had a little "race" in the Aligator River in North Carolina up in the Intercoastal Waterway.

Two nights ago we had a lightning storm that was magnificent. Lucky for us it was about 20 miles north of us, and would have caused 50 knot winds if it would have been right over us. We got the tail winds though, and it blew about 30 knots all day yesterday and the night before.

One thing about the Bahamas is the weather can change in a heartbeat. One minute it's calm and sunny, then the next all hell breaks loose. You have to watch the weather forecasts daily and sometimes hourly. Watch the sky and the clouds and waves all the time.

We found a place here called Crab Cay. It's a resort under construction, just like most every thing is here. It seems to take years and years to finish jobs here.




We plan to leave here next week for sure, after Preston's birthday.

Enjoy the pictures!

Chennie and Preston