It is hard to believe that two months have passed so quickly here in the Abacos, but it is indeed time for us to start heading south for new territory. All is well with us and we have once again enjoyed our time here making some new friends and enjoying some old ones. The weather this year has been miserable for my traditional water sports with front after front passing every few days and leaving the water bumpy and windy and cold. We understand that the weather in the States was even less pleasant! Anyway,  we've contented ourselves with a  lot of reading and socializing and boat projects as well as showing lots of company around the Abacos during the month of February. 
First, our friend Alge returned for a few days and we enjoyed spending time with him again despite the uncooperative weather. We always have plenty to talk about, (and pawns to move), after 35 years of friendship! We put Alge in a taxi to his plane on Sunday...only to find him pulling alongside in a dinghy an hour later. Turned out that they decided not to fly the plane that day after all...so much for reservations! He did manage to get back to Florida safe and sound the next day. 
Next, good buddy Mosby West came to visit the Abacos for the first time. If you'll recall, Mosby is the fellow "Irwin-ite" who helped me bring this boat down to Deltaville from NY. He loves to sail and fish and drink rum...preferably all three at once...so the Bahamas are an ideal venue! We had five days of miserable weather in a row and I was despairing of getting him out on the reefs and seeing how beautiful the water is, but we finally got two perfect days and Mosby got his first lobster...I think we've now got him hooked! We enjoyed his company and even got all of Camaraderie's sails up...look for pictures soon. Whenever we get together again it will be "Fire in de Hole"....(inside joke!). 
Finally son Roger and daughter-in-law Re spent a week with us and again enjoyed the miserable weather where we were pinned to the dock for 3 days. By using the local ferries we were able to get then out and around to see the islands and towards the end of the week, we did get out on Camaraderie and Re was able to get wet and enjoy the beauty of Baker's Bay. The week went too quickly and I think  they would have stayed longer but predictions  for more bad weather kind of killed that idea. We miss them already.
Since then, we've been occupied with provisioning and boat projects to prep us for going south. Friends Paul and Peggy on Dolcefina had serious mechanical and electrical problems and are still marooned in Florida but we hope to hook up with them further south once they get their repairs completed.  
We've spent a lot of time with good friends Frank and Lisa on Lilliano out of Deltaville. Unfortunately, Frank needs to get back to the Deltaville Yacht Yard (where the original Camaraderie awaits his fine touch with the Awlgrip gun!). They will be leaving in the next few days and we sure will miss them (and Sarah!). Maybe we can do chess by e-mail Frank!
Now we are just about ready to start heading south and to new territory for us. We've had 3 fronts come through in the last 7 days so we are just waiting for the wind and seas to calm down a bit before departing on the first leg which is about a 60 mile open water passage to Royal Island in Eleuthra. We hope to buddy boat down there with several others as it is always nice to have company if assistance is needed. From Eleuthra we will cross the banks to the Exuma chain which should be interesting piloting as we will have to keep a lookout for coral heads on the banks as we cross in otherwise deeper water. Good light and calm water is needed for this so we will wait for the right weather before starting. 
Working our way down to Georgetown in the Exumas over the course of about a week should allow a bit of time for exploring while heading in the right direction. From there we will be facing several more short open water passages to various "Far Bahamas" islands until we reach the Turks and Caicos group where we will re-provision and wait for the right weather to make the 100 mile ocean passage to Luperon in the Dominican Republic. We need to be in Grenada by 6/1 to be out of the hurricane belt (and remain covered by our insurance!), so we will then push on to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and down necklace of islands that border the Caribbean basin. I don't know when I'll have a good internet connection again to update this log but will take notes along the way until I do. Anyone interested in staying in touch in the meantime should use my sailmail.com mail address for PLAIN TEXT messages. I will not list that complete address here as I will get Spam mail if I do, but if you don't have that address, e-mail me at sailcamaraderie@yahoo.com and I will send it to you. I can send sailmail messages through my SSB radio so we can stay in touch anywhere if you use that address.
The first mate sends greetings to all and is most excited about heading south and promises to add her touch to this log once again when we start hitting new territory (figuratively we hope!). Until then...fair winds to all...//GB