Dear Family and Friends,

It's been a while since we wrote into our journal. We've been busy moving through the Bahamas and now we're stopped for a few days waiting on weather. So let's begin back in Florida.

We left out of Hillsboro Inlet early on April 19th. The winds were light so we motorsailed across the Gulfstream. It was an easy trip across and we were on the Bahama banks by nightfall. We got to Chub Cay early the next morning and checked thru customs and immigration there. Then we headed off to Rose Island next to Nassau for the night.

We had light winds still and we took off for Hawksbill Cay. With the warm temps and light winds we had some nice swimming weather. It's always so refreshing to see our boat so clearly underwater, just floating gently as if in the air. But we're heading south, so no time to linger.

We had wind in the right direction to make our way down to Georgetown in two hops. On the first hop we met another Lagoon 38 named Harlequinn. Roni and James had just bought the boat and were busy learning the boat's characteristics. It turns out that they were two former Peace Corps Volunteers. They were part of the organization in its second year of inception. We had lots of fun learning of the Peace Corps in those days and telling them of Justin and Anna's experiences now.

We spent a few days in Georgetown meeting with friends on Windstar 4, Sea Dancer, and Zealous. It was an exciting week watching the 55th Annual Bahamian Regatta. Great winds made the races exciting. So we provisioned, watered, and fueled ourselves up and were ready for our adventure to the Caribbean.

We took our first weather window south and have made it down to Mayaguana. This island is the last island of the Bahamas heading southeast. It's best anchorage is surrounded on one side by breaking reefs. There is a small dock that dries at low water, so we made sure to go in only close to high tide. A walk into town brought us to the telecommuntications/post office/ customs/immigration building. That was town. The people were very friendly and helpful. There are no stores here at all. Goods are received via the mailboat from Nassau. We saw lots and lots of chickens as we walked. Roosters were crowing continuosly. We're told that there's also goats on the island, but we didn't see any. Approximately 300 people live here. The people work for the government, farm, fish, or work for an investment company from Boston. The company is planning to build a large airstrip and possibly a marina.

So we're waiting for weather now. The anchorage is rockin' and rollin' and we're hoping the winds will lighten in the next couple of days.

Fair winds to all. Pam and Chris aboard Wildcat