23 April - Day 50. Enough days in port already. It's time to go cruising. And so we head out of White Sound, Green Turtle Cay with a destination of Great Guana Cay, some 16 miles to the south. The Sea of Abaco becomes very shallow in this region and the only way to go south is by leaving protected waters and rounding the 'Whale'. The patch around Whale Cay is notoriously rough. Our approach was greeted with increasing swells and 20kt head winds. Rather than ruin a nice day's outing we merely reversed course and headed to the north end of Manjack Cay; only about 8 nm away. We drop the hook in 6' of crystal clear water over a sand and grass bottom. While walking the beach a 40" black ray, which looks just like a B-2 bomber, starts buzzing our feet. He's so close that his wings slap our shins. Back on Nellie I go over with a scouring pad to clean the bottom. There's some grass lodged in the genset's thruhull. Could the solution to the raw water flow problem be that easy? There are sand dollars, conch, and clams all over the bottom. The water temp is 75F, a little warmer than the 35F we left in the Chesapeake 50 days ago. 20nm today: 1301nm total. DBH

22 April - Day 49. One of the worst sounds aboard has to be that of a diesel engine shutting down unexpectedly. THis is something our genset did several times today. The Onan's built-in diagnostic system indicated that lack of raw water flow caused the automatic shut down. A check of the strainer and impeller removed them from the suspect list. The Onan would restart fine and run for a handful of minutes before shutting down again. Additionally, the raw water flow appeared normal while the Onan was running. Perhaps the problem lay in the raw-water-flow pressure switch. An Ohm meter revealed that the normally closed switch opened when raw water flowed. For whatever reason the switch wasn't opening. This was confirmed when the two wires to the switch were removed, making it appear to the Onan that raw water was flowing, and the genset continued to run. Tomorrow I'll pull the pressure switch and dig deeper. 0nm today: 1281nm total. DBH

21 April - Day 48. The big winds predicted for last night never got much over 25kts. This morning the winds are clocking and driving a fairly constant rain into us. It's amazing how much the holding can change within a small anchorage. We slid all over the place just north of our current spot. While here we're solid as a rock. Thanks to the unsettled weather, everyone in White Sound was staying pretty close to their boats this morning. After the weather cleared Dan and Myra, S/V Kairos, stopped by to say hello. They live in Colorado, where Myra is a middle school principal. Dan grew up in Preston, MD which is about 30 miles north of our home in Church Creek. His family, like mine, started farming in American Corner, MD (which consists of three houses and a stop sign) in the 1700's. While we're strangers, I doubt our great great grandparents were. I imagine a landlubber tends to think of cruising in terms of a solitary sailor on a lonely ocean. For us, nothing could be farther from the truth. Cruising is akin to a giant social scene where the price of admission is a boat. Today's party at the Green Turtle Club Marina started at 2 pm and Nellie D.'s crew wasn't home until after 10 pm. 0nm today: 1281nm total. DBH

20 April - Day 47. We have the Bluff Harbour anchorage on the NW side of Green Turtle Cay all to ourselves. It's a beautiful, small, shallow bay that offers protection from all but north winds. A sand bar guards the entrance and helps keep (most ;-) of us riffraff out. We had a very nice breakfast with Elizabeth and Larry Allen who own a home on the most NE point of the bay. We met Larry last night when he stopped by in his runabout. Cocktails and a tour of Nellie quickly followed. He kindly reciprocated by inviting us in this morning. Rhode Islanders, they've been coming here for many years and finally bought in 2005. The island lifestyle appears to be Robinson Caruso, i.e. a tight, friendly community that delights in their natural surroundings and where, by necessity, ingenuity abounds. By 1230 we were weighing anchor and destined for the ferry dock at Great Abaco. John and Susan were flying in and we hoped to save them from the commercial ferry ride. Halfway there it was apparent that the 20kt south easterlies weren't going to cooperate as the passenger transfer point was completely exposed. With a 'good try' under our belts we diverted to White Sound, Green Turtle Cay. We arrived to a beehive of activity; lots of coming and going. Seems 40kt winds have been forecast for this evening. Boats anchored 'outside' were coming into the safety of the Sound. While boats anchored 'inside' were departing for the added safety of a dock in Black Sound, about 1.5nm away to the south. A quick discussion with a 'grey beard' told us where the good holding was. In 8' of water we put out 80' of chain. Dinner aboard with John and Susan. We batten down and wait for the winds. 5nm today: 1281nm total. DBH

19 Mar - Day #15. A very muddy anchor comes aboard at 0705. Check-in with the Waterway Net for the first time. This is the net we'll be using in the Bahamas. When we left Church Creek, MD the water temp was 36. As we approach Charleston the water temp hits 60F. Drop the hook in Wappo Creek, just south of Charleston. For the first time in I can't remember how long we don't hit bottom--all day! 55nm today: 553nm total. DBH

19 April - Day 46. We wake early to the sounds of Mimosa's anchor being retrieved. Being purists they sail off the mooring and will tack, upwind, the 8 nm to Green Turtle's Black Sound. Like so many others we've met, they're leaving for the summer. From very reliable sources we'd learned that spring and early summer are the best cruising times here. So it was a little alarming, to say the least, to see all the cruisers leaving now. It finally dawned on me that this a migratory pattern, i.e. south in the winter and north in summer, not a declaration of the best cruising time. It helps, too, to understand that cruisers are a thrifty lot and that slips that go for $0.65/ft in the winter are $2.40/ft in the summer. It's now 'high season' here because many Floridians come to escape the heat and go big game fishing. Lighter winds also makes the Gulf Stream crossing easier. For us it means empty anchorages and a lot fewer nights in a marina. 8nm today: 1276nm total. DBH

18 April - Day 45. It's funny as we sit at anchor off the very tropical Manjack Key I'd be thinking about how well an LNVT works as an icebreaker. That is, to meet interesting people. While checking out the three anchorages on Manjack Cay yesterday we selected the middle one, Coconut Tree Beach. Mimosa, a 31' C&C sloop, had the place to themselves. We dropped the hook, staying well clear, but knew we were intruding. With the dink down, and intent on exploring Manjack, we first paid a pro forma courtesy call on our new neighbors. Andre and Bridget, of Nova Scotia, are self proclaimed recluses, who made it clear their friendliness was spurred, in part, by their interest in Nellie D. That's fair, because our initial interest in them was the local knowledge they've gained in 30 years cruising here. One thing led to another and before any of us realized it it was 10 pm. During which they'd gotten a tour of Nellie and we'd been briefed on all the 'good' spots. More important though was the connection made with interesting people. I can't help but laugh at all the unintended consequences in this story, the least of which is our 'icebreaker'. 8nm today: 1268nm total. DBH