Living The Good Life In The Exumas

Pink iguanas on Leaf Cay.

Chere sitting pretty off Lee Stocking Island.

Nat and Dad return from a birthday spearing trip.

The view of one our anchorages from the top of Perry's Peak on Lee Stocking Island, highest point in the Exumas.

Dissecting fish during science class on Chere. (Note the cute teacher in the bikini).

A good take from Nat's birthday AM spearfishing trip. Lobbies, schoolmaster, lionfish and grunt. Yum!

Hanging out on the other side of Lee Stocking after a good hike.

Zusammen looking sharp in the In-the-Harbor race during Cruisers' Regatta Week.

Movietime on Chere with the kids from Osprey Zusammen and Good Trade.

These are a few pictures of what we've been up to for the past few weeks. We're in Black Point, Great Guana right now, with a weak internet connection, so we're not able to get a full blog post out. But the long and short of it is that we've been cruising the Exumas with Zusammen, Osprey and Celilo and having a ball. We spent close to a week in a beautiful anchorage on the west side of Lee Stocking Island, where we spent most of our time fishing, snorkling, spearing, conching, hiking and hanging out with our friends. (All the boys have been doing their part to eradicate the invasive and destructive, but thankfully tasty, lionfish from local reefs). Spectacular scenery. Nat celebrated his 13th!!! birthday -- Betsy and I still can't believe we have a teenager on board -- by going for a morning spearfishing trip with Tyler, John Schnauck and me, and then cake and desert aboard Chere with the entire crew. The kids from the other boats put together some very creative and thoughtful gifts. I'm sure Nat will remember this birthday for a long, long time.

We then moved north to the southern end of Great Guana Cay for close to a week. The sail north was interesting, with a nasty passage through Adderly Cut, after which we were chased by some healthy squalls which produced 30-40knot winds. I think Betsy set a "second reef" speed record that day, throwing one in just before a big blow came through.

Great Guana was a blast. We mixed it up with a lot of hiking and snorkling/spearing. We named one hike the "bloody loop", which is a good description of what our shins and feet looked like after we spent an hour or so bushwacking through some of the thorniest country I've ever seen. It didn't help that the ground consisted of razor sharp limestone needles. But the hike was worth it; the cave we were looking for had a small entrance, and the floor sloped way, way back from the entrance and ran down to a crystal clear pool of water at the bottom that was filled with small fish and shrimp. Pretty fun -- and a bit creepy, at least for me -- taking a dip at the bottom of a cavern! We also made several quick trips over to the airport bar on Little Farmers (can't remember the name). Fantastic little joint with a beautiful beach on one side and the island's runway on the other. Cheap beer, fantastic conch fritters and great people. Tough to beat.

We're now heading out to Big Major's Spot for another birthday celebration (Johnny on Osprey), and then off to Cat to meet up with the Nugents. The weather is a bit tricky for the next few days, but regardless of when we get to Cat, we plan to stay there through the Nugent's vacation and probably a bit longer. Then our general plan is to head to Eluethera and catch up with Zusammen, Osprey and Celilo for some more cruising.

All for now. Great hearing from everyone by email and phone.

Sam