Dec. 5 Ariel took us to a great burger place and we treated them to lunch. Afterwards, we went across the street to Enterprise and picked up our car rental. It was time to drive to Pompano Beach and pick up the parts to fix the water heater. we found the place easily as we had our portable GPS with us. Once back on the boat, John managed to get the thing back together and it worked! He immediately had a nice hot shower.

Dec. 6 It took several tries (leaving in the dinghy ,tying up at Ariel, realizing we had forgotten something, and going back to the boat) but we finally got to the car with everything we needed for our last day in civilization. First we had several errands to run for ourselves and also Ariel, then we were meeting my ex mother inlaw, Olga Fanjul for lunch along with another Cuban friend, Dolores. We had a good Spanish lunch with white wine sangria. After dropping Olga and Dolores off, we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening finishing our errands, dropping off the car and making one last run to the supermarket. We didin’t get back to the boat till about 7:30pm and then I had to find room for all the food. The refridgerator was jammed pack full. no room for anything more but the door was able just able to close!

Dec. 7 It was glassy calm and we were the last to leave when we left at 7 am. The sailboats had left the day before in the light wind that day. We got the 7:30 am bridge opening and headed out Government Cut to open ocean. It was nice being able to cross the beautiful blue gulf stream with 1-2ft waves and onyl a little breeze. About halfway across, a small group of dolphins came to play by our bow. I leaned out over the bow and whistled and waved to them and they turned to look at me many times. One even swam on its back for a while looking up at me. What a thrill. They do love to play with humans. Later, I spotted some whales but they were far off and I couldn’t tell which kind they were. By 3pm, we crossed over onto the Bahama Bank and went from thousands of feet in depth to about 30 ft. then later about 17 ft. Now the water was our favorite turquoise color and we could see the bottom! After months of brown or green opaque water, it is a treat to finally be in crystal clear water again. The wind died and the whole Bank was like a lake. We had a full moon, and even at midnight, we could look down and see the bottom. It seems as through one is in about 5 ft but it really is much deeper.

Dec. 8 We arrived at Chub Cay at about 3 am and anchored in our usual spot just outside the channel. When the world was awake, we took the boat into the fuel dock to clear customs and get a token amount of fuel. They charge $100 to use their facility to clear customs but they allow people to buy that amount of fuel instead. At $6 a gallon, we didn’t get much. The big disappointment was only getting 90 days to stay in the Bahamas so we have to renew our papers in March which is a big pain! After we were finished there, we took off for the southern side of New Providence Island and anchored just around the western end near a new marina. The holding was horrible so we rested the anchor on the bottom with about 200 feet of chain and the weight of both held us even in 15kts of wind.

Dec. 9 We decided to take the dinghy in and check out the new marina and resort complex. Wow what a place! Their rates are even less than Lyford Cay on the other side and the marina is easier to get into and bigger inside. We saw Mirabella 5 with its very tall mast. She is a biggie! We also saw Johnny Depps motor yacht and Tiger Woods powerboat. Once we had put the dinghy back up on the top deck, we headed over to the Exumas. The wind was still blowing and the progress slow but we made it all the way to Shroud Cay and anchored just as the sun was setting.