Started out at about 8:30am from Flying Fish Marina in Clarence Town this morning with fairly good (15 kt) ESE winds.  Wind dropped to about 10 knots so we motor sailed the 70 miles from there up to the northern tip of Long Island.  Motored around Santa Maria point and about 3 miles down the west side of Long Island to Calabash Bay.  This is a very remote area - like much of what we have seen for the last 3 days. Tomorrow, we will head to Georgetown on Great Exuma.  The plan is to get fuel there and anchor out, waiting for a cold front to pass through.  The west side of Long Island is the eastern side of the Grand Bahama Bank, where, for a hundred miles, the water is only a few feet deep.  We are anchored in a completely white sand bottom area and the almost full moon is shining off the bottom making the water glow.  It's amazing.   The downside of this anchorage is that it is a bit rocky from the surge.  The water is very smooth but big swells come around the top of the island and find their way into the anchorage. 

Tomorrow, it's up early and on to the northern tip of Long Island and around to the West side where we will anchor and then proceed onto the Exuma chain.  Should be two days in the Exumas and then on to Eluthra where Dewey and Mary will disembark and Ollie will arrive.  Will likely be out of touch for several days.  Had cracked Conch at "Rowdy Boys Restaurant tonight.  Everyone else is in bed and I'm heading there now.

I'm behind on my blogging for a couple reasons.  I've started reading a great book and I've been enjoying chatting with our new crew member Dewey Dyer.  More about Dewey and his wife Mary later.  Yesterday afternoon, we arrived in Little Harbor at the south end of Long Island. We debated on whether to go a little further north to Clearance Town but since we will be going there today to spend the night at a marina we decided to "rough it" last night.  Little harbor is the prettiest anchorage I've seen yet.  It's very deserted and peaceful.  We have concluded that most of the anchoring in the southern part of the Bahamas and to the south east is in deep water.  From here on, it will be much more shallow.  Arrived in Little Harbor at about 2:30pm - plenty of time to snorkel and relax.

See the Charts tab for a discussion of the charts we are using for the trip.

Motor sailed overnight and most of the day today from the NE tip of Aukins Island to Long Island.  The winds were light, around 10 kts. but seemed lighter since we were broad reaching the entire day.  Had great breakfast (eggs, potatoes, sausage) and a fantastic cold pasta and lobster dinner last night thanks to Mary and Captain Phil.  Little sea life today but great weather.  Seems like we have left the Caribbean squalls behind us.

Got a late (11am) start out of Abrahams Bay but there was no rush since we had decided to do an overnighter to get to our next destination.  Had good 20 to 25kt ESE winds all day with 6 to 8' seas.  Our new crew members are troopers and are handling the seas with no problem.  Dinner was Captain Phils Dirty Rice and sausage in a bowl (every try eating while riding a "mechanical bull"?).

Left Turtle Cove at about 8am.  In the end, Phil's interface with Customs lasted only about 5 minutes.  We has Joeseph lead us out through the reef.  The day was uneventful with 15 to 20 knot ESE winds and 3 to 6' swells.  We arrived at the entrance of Abraham's bay just after sundown which made entering the anchorage a little iffy.  We anchored about 1/2 mile behind a reef that was a little awash making the night pretty rocky. 

Because of the logistics of clearing out of the T&C, we have decided to leave Turtle cove tomorrow - a day later than planned.  Tomorrow morning, we will sail around 70 miles to the island of Mayaguana.  It is big enough to have an airport but is pretty small.  We got provisions for over a week today and ate lunch at a real "dive" - see photos.  Customs was to have met us at the boat at 3:30pm but never showed.