These last few days have just been so special. We feel the journey coming to an end, in each place we re-visit and say goodbye. Other stops are wonderful at new places we have just discovered – showing that there is always something new around the corner. We loved our time in Warderick Wells, the Exuma Land and Sea Park where we moored Friday to Sunday. Weather was lovely and the spotted eagle rays did not disappoint as they swam past our boat for hours in groups up to 7 at a time. We even had 2 visiting sharks that circled our boat each evening (right at shower time as luck would have it! And yes we did still jump in…have to rinse the soap off somehow!).
The weather has turned out to be fine, but has been troublesome with inconvenient timing of this big front that is now possibly arriving today. Or not? It already passed the northern Bahamas but may or may not make it this far down. Since it’s been on the forecast for a week, it can be all consuming getting weather updates and tracking it to determine where we should be. Ensuring we had the right wind to get south was critical as Reid and Rheta fly in Thursday and we didn’t want to get stranded too far north. As luck would have it –Sunday and Monday as our motor sailing south became engine-off sailing as each day we got a change in wind in our favour so conditions were always good. We had some nasty rain squalls all around us on Monday….but sadly no rain. Fingers crossed for today – we need to fill up our water tanks! Here’s hoping.
Each day we say “this is our last sunny day” or “this is our last chance to swim”…only to find out the next day is lovely too. Yesterday was no different. We could see the front to the north with huge clouds and heard about 50knot gusts in the Abacos, but we were sunny and 10-15knots anchored off Thomas Cay in the Pipe Creek area of the Exumas. We started some packing and then spent the afternoon exploring new territory – reefs around Over Yonder Cay. In most exciting news – Henry finally got a CONCH!!! Well done Henry. He found it, dove for it, and swim-carried it back to dinghy (they are heavy!). It was huge, though Henry’s smile was even bigger! Happiest boy ever. The last thing on our bucket list….check! (not that we really had a bucket list….but he has been dreaming of finding a conch this whole trip. So many juvenile conch we’ve found and left behind. This is the first mature one). Also we found a huge Whelk, right near the conch AND a helmet shell too….all with living creatures inside. Amazing to find 1 never mind all 3. Then our last snorkel of the day between Rat cay and the mice we had 2 turtles swim by, calmly letting us join them till we tired of the up current swim. A wonderful way to end.
Fun Afloat 