Headed back to the USA

May 7th through the 12th we stayed on a mooring in Hope Town and snorkeled some, Jeff did volunteer work on the Elbow Reef Lighthouse and I volunteered in the gift shop. On Friday, our dear friend Arnie arrived back in Abaco and we enjoyed dinner together at the Hope Town Inn & Marina.
Sunday morning Jeff and I sailed to Marsh Harbour to provision one last time before leaving Hope Town to begin our journey back to the states. That night we went to a Potcake Documentary called, as you might expect, "It's a Potcake Life Documentary". Potcakes are the local dogs of the Bahamas, sweet loyal, loving and I. Want. One. They have a few puppies available but I'm afraid this isn't the year. We'll be leaving in a few days and that wouldn't be enough time to see if we can find the right match - one who enjoys living on a boat! But we do have all the right connections now, and will keep in touch with the wonderful people who save these dogs from living a life without a home.

May 16th Jeff scrubbed the bottom of the boat and we celebrated Janet and Arnie's anniversary and my birthday at Firefly - a great restaurant in Hope Town. The next morning we began our northward trek to Green Turtle Cay and after anchoring and taking the dinghy to New Plymouth for a freshly baked loaf of Bahamian bread and a few other necessities, we checked out the Leeward Yacht Club docks to see if there was space available since it was going to rain for the next couple of days. We reserved our spot, then went back and moved EXILE to the facedock there. Great decision, since the wind picked up and the rain came down.

From there we were off the dock the morning of the 19th and stopped at Manjack Cay for a few hours, where a couple of rays swam up to us as we dinghied to shore to say hello, before sailing north to Powell Cay, only 80 minutes away, where we spent the night. It's always a nice stop; quiet, protected and pretty. Not to mention the flotsam and jetsam artwork on the beach... including ours from 2011, which other visitors have added their mark to. We were all about "leaving our mark" then. Manjack Cay is beautiful even with a heavily overcast sky.

Manjack Cay

Manjack Cay welcoming committee

Powell Cay

Powell Cay

Powell Cay

Another resident of Powell Cay

Friday morning, the 20th we left Powell Cay and were on our way to Allan's-Pensacola but decided to make a brief stop in Crab Cay since it looked like a storm was brewing in the direction we were headed. Turned out to be a good call and we took the dinghy to check out the cut. What a surprise! Tons of reef fish there that we could see from above.

The storm dissipated and we continued on to Allan's-Pensacola. Naturally, we had to trek across the island to see if our EXILE sign that we left many years ago was still there. Although the Tanqueray bottle with our card in it was gone, something we already knew about because after a storm here a couple of years ago a person from New Hampshire found it and called us! Anyway, the sign was still there and as much as Jeff wanted to climb the tree to add the year to it, he made the right call and opted out... the year he hung it, he came down with a nasty case of poisonwood rash - sort of like poison ivy.

Someone added a swing seat looking out at the water!

That evening a couple of guys dinghied to our boat - turns out we had met one of them at the lighthouse while we were working there. He and his friend had gone conching earlier that day and offered us a couple. We couldn't resist, since we'd been out earlier ourselves looking for conch and came up empty handed. Not only did we enjoy a great conversation and conch, Jeff learned how to remove the meat from the shell with the proper tools.

Talk about a conch dump!

The 21st, we had a fantastic, 35 mile close reach sail doing 6-8 knots to Double Breasted Cay yesterday from Allan's-Pensacola, and took in the beautiful water and sandbars, then anchored for the night. T-storms until midnight. 

One last look at the colors of the Bahamas until next season

Just can't get enough of this!

EXILE anchored

Such clear water

Up early this morning and motored to Grand Cay where we have a slip for the night at Rosie's. We'll enjoy our last Bahamian meal of the season here and head out tomorrow morning around 8:30am to cross back to Florida. Should be there by Tuesday evening.

Facedock at Rosie's Place

We expect to spend a little while in St. Augustine, FL catching up with family and friends. From there we will cruise up the east coast with stops in Long Island and CT to spend time with family before heading north to Stonington, Maine for the summer.