Sunday, April 27 — We got up at 0530 and untied from the dock at 0630, just as the sun was beginning to rise. It was high tide. Today was the new moon, so the tides were extra high/ low. We were grateful to have a little more water under the keel as we navigated the narrow channel out.

We were heading to an area called Staniel Cay, part of the string of tiny islands that make up the Exumas.

The sea conditions were okay. The 1 – 2 foot wind chop waves were sharp, hitting at 2 – 3 second intervals, and breaking. They were hitting us on the starboard. The motion was lurchy. Much to our frustration, the closet was squeaking like crazy like it does in head seas. In good news, there was no swell. It was a sunny day with scattered clouds.

On the ride, we tried the johnnycake and the curry wrap. The johnnycake was basically a light cornbread, which made Christi think there may be some regular flour mixed in with the cornmeal. It was slightly sweetened. The curry tasted good, but Keith was unfamiliar with roti and was disappointed that it wasn’t as much like a tortilla as he’d expected.

We arrived at 1800 and dropped anchor in an anchorage farther away from town, which would provide better protected in the forecasted winds (the airport was in the town).

The first photo was looking north, where you can see what has been dubbed “cruiser beach” and the second photo was looking south, where you can see “pig beach.”

Eric and Keith saw nurse shark circling the boat as they were setting the snubber lines. It circled several times before moving on. We knew nurse sharks were harmless to humans, but it was still disconcerting.

We had a quiet night aboard. Monday was the 18 year anniversary of when we left on our circumnavigation. It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed. In some ways, it felt like yesterday. In other ways, it felt like a lifetime ago. And in other ways, it felt like it was just a vivid dream — like it never really happened.

After we finished school and morning chores, we dinghied into the town. It was a 1.5 mile ride from the anchorage. On the way to town, we dinghied close to pig beach to get a look at the pigs.

As we were putting along in our slow dinghy, a fast tourist boat pulled up. The tourists were armed with carrots. The boat called the pigs, and they went running into the water!

We noticed that they’d retrieve the food, swim to a place they could stand, eat the food, then swim back for more.

A couple of the carrots floated away, so we picked them up and fed a couple of the pigs ourselves.

After we’d had our fill of watching the pigs, we continued on towards town… to be continued…