Final leg of our journey

Tonight is the last night of our trip and we are anchored on the southeast side of Sanibel. Tomorrow - home!

We haven't had much wi-fi lately, so I'm combining a few posts that I've worked on along the way. Photos will come later:

Saturday, April 9 - I'm sitting in a gazebo at Sampson Cay Marina, gazing out at beautiful scenery and relishing the soft, cool breeze. Life is good. Colby, a nine-year old boy, just joined his dad here with his bag lunch and asked me if I needed any cleaning done on our boat. After living on it for nearly six weeks? Um, yeah - it could definitely use a little cleaning. I told him to go have Wayne put him to work. 

This is probably the nicest marina we've seen in the Exumas - nicely maintained and scenic, with a relatively well-stocked (for the Exumas) grocery store. It also offers great protection from foul weather - whatever that is. We've only had one day of rain, one nighttime thunderstorm, and a couple of scattered showers since leaving home.

After our 112 mile crossing from the Ragged Islands on Tuesday, April 5, we anchored for a night at Little Farmer's Cay, then went in to the marina for a night. We used their free wi-fi to catch up on email, etc., then walked into "town."

JR the woodcarver, signing our purchase

Next stop was Big Majors for two nights, where we snorkeled Thunderball Cave (sure hope fish don't carry rabies - they got a bit over-zealous when I was feeding them),

visited the swimming pigs, popped in to Staniel Cay for a drink and cracked conch, and played dominoes on Windswept Dreams with Ed, Ann, Chris, and Sheila. We met Ed and Ann when we were anchored at Norman's Cay and, without knowing it, anchored near them at Big Majors. Also anchored right next to us there were a couple from Punta Gorda who are good friends of Marilyn and Bruce. That's how it is cruising the Bahamas - you keep running into people you know and you share common acquaintances with nearly everyone you meet.

Which brings us to Sampson Cay. A little while after we docked, we ran into Ed and Ann at the fuel dock. The four of us went for a late lunch of pizza and conch fritters, then after dinner they stopped by so I could give Ann a basket weaving lesson (she had gone to a class in Georgetown but forgot how it was done). Sunday morning Reflection called us on the VHF and they, too, were anchored at Sampson and coming in for fuel. They stopped over afterward and Marilyn gave ME another basket weaving lesson.

We left Sampson Cay about noon on Sunday and made the short but tricky trek down to Pipe Creek, which is probably our favorite spot in the Exumas. It's tricky because of the windy entrance with shallow rocks and reefs en route to the anchorage off Thomas Cay; good visibility is a must for safe navigation there. On the plus side, once you're in you probably have it to yourself because not many boats go in there. And it's beautiful, with good shelling and snorkeling (you have to snorkel at slack tide to avoid the current, though). Ed and Ann dinghied down from Sampson to snorkel with us. I was the first one in the water and about thirty feet from our dinghies when an Eagle Ray swam by. I yelled to the others, then took photos of him as he circled me three times before swimming off. It was magical.

Thursday, April 14 - Our two nights at Pipe Creek marked the official end of our vacation. We're heading home now, and for us that means we get up as early as 4 a.m., sail all day, anchor for the night, and repeat until we're home. We anchored at Shroud Cay on Tuesday and West Bay off New Providence on Wednesday. 

Normally when we anchor for the night we're tucked into a cove or at least on the leeward side of an island for protection from wind, waves, and current. But occasionally we're anchored as we are tonight - with nothing but water as far as the eye can see. We're in twenty feet of calm water about 30 miles south of Gun Cay (the nearest island) and will cross the Gulf Stream tomorrow to Rodriguez Island, off the coast of Florida.

Wayne's up in the cockpit and keeps calling me up to see the weird fish that seem to be skipping over the surface of the water. Hmmm... Of course, I haven't seen one yet. I told him he's been at sea too long. 

Last night some "neighbors" stopped by to chat for a few minutes, then motored off in their dinghy. A while later they came blasting back at full throttle to tell us they had just seen a 13 foot hammerhead shark. Um... no snorkeling this evening for us, thank you.

After an uneventful night anchored at Rodriguez Island off Key Largo on Friday, we took a short-cut through the Keys. Wayne had been skeptical of going that way because of the depth, but Reflection draws 5 1/2 feet (we draw 5 feet) and can get through there, so we felt safe. Five Mile Channel saved us one day of travel over our route through Marathon and the Seven Mile Bridge. We had to time it tide-wise to be able to get under the 65' bridge comfortably, but with enough depth to navigate the shallow water; it worked out well.

Last night we opted to skip anchoring in Little Shark River and instead anchored about eight miles north of there. It was very calm and we slept well.


Check back for more photos and videos.