Much of today was spent in preparation for the departure we hope to make tomorrow. We had rain and thunderstorms last night which had cleared by morning. We hoped to do a small load of clothes before we left but when Paula investigated the laundry room shortly after 8am she found that the washers and dryers were all taken by someone apparently washing for a large crew. There were also multiple folks in line. Since Accu-weather predicted no rain ‘till noon and there was a brisk breeze, she bucket-washed and hung out clothes on the lifelines, only to have the rain return 45 minutes later, suddenly and hard. Grouchiness ensued. As the rain came and went all day, the clothes journeyed from hanging outside, to hanging inside the boat, then back out again. The final solution was to hang them inside the cockpit and open and close the canvas cockpit flaps as the rain dictated. The featured picture says it all 🙂

The cabin got a good cleaning in preparation for departure and a new loaf of Johnnycake was made. We charged up our devices on the AC while it is still available: Kindles, dust-buster, cameras, computers, electric razor, dinghy battery, etc. Tom checked the engine and added a little oil and stowed everything in the aft cabin in its proper “underway” location. One of the nice things about stopping in a place like Nassau is that we were able to re-provision everything – full tanks of diesel, water, propane, and lots of food.

Once we were pretty sure of the forecast, we went up to the marina office to pay our bill and let them know we’d be leaving in the morning. It turned out we weren’t the only ones waiting on the weather to finally change, as four other boat crews came to the office at the same time as us also wanting to check-out for a tomorrow departure. Most unfortunately for the marina staff, it was at that exact moment that their Internet service stopped working, which prevented credit card transactions from taking place. We all waited around for a while the IT guy endeavored to fix it. The IT guy looked just like the prototypical all-American IT guy – a pudgy white guy with longish wavy black hair and black-rimmed glasses (apparently they’re the same the world over). There will be a small parade of boats out of here between 8 and 9AM in the morning. We stayed here the same number of days we stayed in Bimini, and amazingly our total bill was slightly less than what we paid in Bimini. Great value here.

Just a few slips down from our boat, Paula saw a couple staring at something in the water. Upon investigation, it was a Spotted Eagle Ray swimming just on the surface. It was beautiful and moved very slowly and gracefully.

Tommy got a shower at the marina and emerged looking clean, crisp and comfortable. Paula likes to wait until after she makes and eats dinner, since the galley can get pretty warm with cooking, so she will go once this post is put to bed.

Tonight we had thawed ham, baked with the fresh pineapple we bought here, rice cooked with the stock that came from cooking the pot roast, sautéed onions, cucumber and celery. Our last green squash rounded out the meal with a green vegetable. Oh, and some Johnnycake.

Keep in mind that we cannot be certain of Internet connectivity for the next couple nights so there may be a few delayed posts. The tracker map at the bottom of the home page should still work so you can see where we are.