We're presently in Savannah and just enjoyed a day in this beautiful city...once again visiting our favorite pub for a roast beef and Yorkshire pudding lunch with some draft Bass Ale....mmmmm....good! We'll be on to Beaufort (Bew-fort!) SC tomorrow and points north on the way to the Chesapeake over the next 2-3 weeks but first I'll fill in the details of the past month a bit.
Our stay in the Abacos continued with much swimming and lobstering/snorkeling on the reefs. We visited a couple of places we hadn't  seen last year. Little Harbor at the extreme southern end of the Abacos is a pretty little anchorage with just a 3ft.  depth at the entrance at low tide. By sneaking across at high tide we were able to enjoy the protection of the harbor and the sand floored "Pete's Pub" for a burger. Looking up from my burger I saw a T-Shirt from 2002 with friends autograph's from Chinook and Odyssey and Valhalla. We missed having them with us this year! Jan explored a cave on the island where an artist's family lived for some months after a major hurricane and also saw the pouring of molten bronze at the local studio...while the captain contented himself with a novel! Marc and I were unsuccessful at scaring up any lobsters here but he did find a big stone crab which  was a pretty rare find.

The other new place we visited was Treasure Cay which had been dredged since last year and was now open to deep draft vessels. The water and beach there were drop dead gorgeous...truly the best beach in the entire Abacos in terms of purity of sand and water color. Anchoring in the small basin by the marina there cost us 8 bucks a day and included use of the fresh water pool and showers and a short walk to grocery and other stores so it  is no wonder that this is becoming quite a popular spot. 
One thing we had a lot more of this year was weather of all sorts as the weird winter we had experienced while in Florida also affected the Bahamas. Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the cold weather had disappeared, but we had a number of strong fronts come through and lots of thunderstorms as well amidst unusually warm and soggy weather. One night we had 60 mph winds at Treasure Cay as a squall barreled through. Several boats dragged a bit but all was well...10 miles away in Marsh Harbor and beyond,  boats dragged ashore,  dinghies flipped (complete with outboards!) and some boats played bumper cars with others. 
When friends Phil and Cheryl arrived from NY to spend a week with us, we figured a week on board would finally drive them away for good! The weather did it's best with steamy days and lots of squalls...but after visiting Hopetown and Baker's Bay, Man O' War and Treasure Cays they didn't want to leave. ...as long as they could sleep in the  air conditioned Hibiscus Cafe! They enjoyed meeting Paul and Peggy and Mark and Nikki even though no one liked THEM!! <grin>

After  they left for the states we re-provisioned in Marsh Harbor...said goodbye to the great folks  at HarbourView Marina and began to work our way north. Due to bad weather, we had to lay over for a few days in Green Turtle so Mark and I once again hit the reefs for  the last lobsters  of the season. Dolcefina joined us when the weather cleared and we all headed out to Great Sale Cay and then West End in preparation for crossing back to the States. The trip always seems longer on the way back...but it was easy and nice to be able to  get the sail out for much of the trip. Since Mark & Nikki  were crossing to Lake Worth, we said our good-byes at West End and planned to cross to Ft. Pierce with Dolcefina the next day. We really enjoyed getting to know and hang out with the "Long Reachers" and know that we will meet again and that hopefully Nikki's Boggle skills  will have improved somewhat!! (hee-hee! Eh! )

The Gulf Stream was like floating down a river at 10 knots as we crossed over in just 9.5 hours for the 82 miles!! A Coast Guard  helicopter buzzed us about 50 miles out as evidence of our hyped up war-time security! Our biggest thrill was plowing through the mud entering the marina channel at extreme low water in Ft. Pierce.
The next morning we said goodbye for a while to Peggy and Paul as well. The good news is that after a visit home they will be heading north and will be able to spend some time with us this summer. Can't  wait to see "Lucy"  and "BabyCakes"  again!!

The next day we headed out to Vero Beach and were happy to find friends Mike and Nancy (Zoellyn) were still there. They had planned to be in the Abacos this year but Nancy fell and broke her upper arm and they were unable to continue the journey. We delived some lobster tails to them, (from Marc &  Nikki & us), did some provisioning with them and hit the Dunkin Donuts shop as well as our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was sure good to get some USA stores and food again!

The next day we made it to Titusville and then Daytona where buddy Alge was able to stay with us for the evening and treated us to pizza and other Italian delights that we had missed. We  talked for hours about kids and family and hopefully we can get together in NC this summer for a bit too!
Our next stop was for 3 nights in St. Augustine where we anchored out in blustery weather and dinghied in to shop and enjoy this wonderful town again. Our favorite spot , the  "Havana Village Cafe", once again provided a delightful and civilized evening of great Cuban food,  live Latin music &  dancing and great, personal service as we stayed up till almost 11:30 PM!! WOW...what night-owls we have become!

We pushed on to Fernandina Beach the next day and then on into Georgia and a 70 mile plus day which  ended in a beautiful Teakettle Creek anchorage with several other boats. The next day, my fuel filter finally clogged again but we dropped the hook and I swapped it out and we were back under way in just a half hour. We are presently at the Palmer Johnson marina in Thunderbolt (Savannah) GA and have about 3 weeks ahead of us till we arrive back in the Chesapeake. The 9 foot tides here remind me of Maine and I actually enjoy the tides and currents as we navigate since it keeps the trip interesting. At least if you run aground somewhere...you just have to wait a bit before you  are afloat again...just don't  do it at high tide!! So  far, the ICW has been good with just a couple of shoals encroaching on the channel that I had marked on the way south (and sent in to Skipper Bob's for his next edition!) . Haven't bumped yet.... On to BEW-Fort!  //GB