Moving to Hawksbill Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

Dawn on Monday, December 22, 2025

When we woke up, it was overcast and the wind screaming. Much to our relief, the charter boat moved early in the morning, so at least we didn’t have to worry about them dragging and hitting us. The anchorage was rolly and uncomfortable, so Eric put out the starboard flopper stopper, which helped dampen the motion. That said, the motion made all three of us kind of grouchy. Even though it was rolly where we were, it was much worse on the north side, so we were glad we moved yesterday instead of waiting until today. Rain was in the forecast.

As soon as Keith finished his school work, he went to Zimovia to hang out with the kids. He stayed there for 7 hours. They played outside on the deck for the majority of the time.

Continue reading

The Blowhole, Blackpoint, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

Dawn on Sunday, December 14, 2025

This morning it was windy, then both windy and rainy, then the wind died and there was light rain for a few hours. Once the wind died, it was hot and humid. Eric cleaned the bottom.

The wind was forecast to shift direction, so he made sure that the anchor was well set, which was easy to do in such amazingly clear water.

Continue reading

Lying Low Between the Majors, Staniel Cay Area, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

On Wednesday, December 10, 2025, we woke up wondering if the Apocalypse had just happened.

While Christi and Keith did school, Eric removed the salinity probe and cleaned it. But it didn’t help — the sensor still wasn’t working. When he put it back, he tightened it as much as he could to ensure it didn’t leak.

We needed to go to the grocery store. We decided to go to shore at 1130, figuring that would give us enough time to have lunch and do our grocery shopping before the current was too strong in either direction. We somehow made a big mistake in calculations. Going in, the current was still strong. We made slow forward progress while the battery power was quickly sucked down. Eric had intended to bring a spare battery for the dinghy to be safe, but when we were about halfway to shore, he realized he’d forgotten it. From there on out, he was really anxious about getting stranded. We made it to the yacht club dinghy area with no problems. It was high tide, and the sea wall was again underwater.

Continue reading

Moving to Between the Majors, Staniel Cay Area, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

On Tuesday, December 9, 2025, it was raining during sunrise. The view of the sun was completely obscured, but there were some pretty colors prior to the rain rolling in.

Much to our dismay, when we checked the forecast this morning, we saw that it had changed again — the wind would continue to come from the west all day today. Argh. We were frustrated with ourselves for not moving yesterday. When Eric and Keith went to bring in the flopper stopper, they saw this guy was making circles around it.

We immediately moved to the anchorage called Between the Majors on the northwest side of Big Major Cay. It was much more comfortable than the south side had been, but still rolly enough to deploy the port side flopper stopper. One of the issues with this anchorage that had made Eric reluctant to move yesterday was that it had a strong current that caused the boats to swing wildly from one direction to the other, increasing the chance of dragging. And the boats didn’t move together in unison. Some boats moved more with the wind direction and others with the current, so there was a bigger chance of collisions in this type of anchorage. We made sure that we anchored far away from the other boats and that the anchor was set well. This was our view of the anchorage looking northeast towards Fowl Cay.

Continue reading

Transit from Royal Island (near Eleuthera Island) to Highbourne Cay (Exuma Islands), The Bahamas

Full moon just before dawn on Friday, December 5

Sunrise

On Friday morning, while Christi and Keith did school, Eric cleaned the watermaker sea strainer, the DC carbon filter, and the AC carbon pre-filter and filters. In the early afternoon, Eric and Keith tried to go to shore to explore the hurricane ruins, but that dock was still inaccessible. Given how shallow it was around that dock, it was probably only usable at high tide.

Continue reading