Judy was doing a great job on the blog, but when she flew home, I didn't keep it up. Jeanne & David flew down to Staniel Cay mid March, but had to stay overnight in Nassau, because they couldn't make the connection. They met Chris, who had the same problem, and talked to him on the flight to Staniel the next day. Turns out he's a big fisherman, with a boat set up for offshore fishing. He was very friendly, showing dave how they set up their lures for using Ballyhoo, a bait fish. Later in the week, he invited Dave and me to go fishing. He had the 3 of us trolling with 10 lines in the water, using outriggers and downriggers. We caught 7 Mahi mahi, and 1 barracuda, all good sized fish. So that was a fun change of pace! Dave and I did some snorkelling in Pipe Creek, and found a couple of nice spots. Then on to Norman's Cay, and Nassau. Jeanne flew home, and Bruce Larson arrived for the delivery trip back to RI. We stopped 2 nights in the Berry Cays, then did 2 days and nights of standing watch to arrive in St. Augustine, Fla. to check in with Customs. It was then when we found out the local Customs office was closed Tues. and Wed. Wed. we rented a car to drive to Jacksonville to clear Customs. We left Wed. noon, and went overnight to Beaufort SC. What started off as a nice sail, became a windy ride. At one point we were going 7 knots with just the jib! Both St. Augustine and Beaufort were nice stops, with nice marinas and pleasant small towns near the waterfront.
More catching up in the next post.
