Starting the Trek North

I forgot to post a picture of the lobster Dan caught this year!  It fed three people a hearty lunch and there was enough for Dan to have surf and turf when had steak a few nights ago. 

We left Long Island on Sunday morning (Feb 18th) to head back to Georgetown.  The wind was shifting to the west, which wouldn't be good for Thompson Bay.  We found our same anchorage off Sand Dollar beach despite there being about a hundred more boats in this harbor.  Last year the record was 390-something vessels.  This year it's well over 400.  Too many for us; we only spent one night there.

The weather was calm enough for us to go back to Lee Stocking Island and setlle in before the afternoon winds really kicked in.  We diverted over to small, deserted Black Cay for a quick beach walk on the way.  Both of us had some good finds - Dan picked up a very nice seat cushion that fit our dinghy perfectly, and I found a great cache of conchs and whelks.  

At Lee Stocking we took a hike across the island to one of the beaches on the ocean side.  We were here three weeks ago and took the left fork in the jungle trail; this time we took the right fork.  This beach is hiked almost daily, so there's little in the way of shells, but Dan found some nice lengths of bamboo and we collected a cupful of sea glass.  We spent three nights at Lee Stocking island.

Thursday (Feb 22) the weather calmed down enough to move on.  We made it to Black Point by mid-afternoon.  I did the laundry and Dan visited some of the neighboring cruisers, one of whom we'd met in Kentucky on the Great Loop.

This morning we moved on to an anchorage near Staniel Cay that we call Between the Majors. (Big Major Cay to the west, Little Major Cay to the east.)  Last year we rode out a strong weather system here with about forty other cruisers.  There aren't forty boats here yet but we expect more to come tomorrow before the north winds start howling again.  We came through a little cut to get here - this picture doesn't do it justice.  We'll probably be here til Sunday.  

One of Tommie’s favorite places to lounge is at the foot of our bed.