Crab Cay, Abacos

Today was jam-packed. We had spent the night at the cleverly named No Name Cay and were up early so that we could dinghy over to Pelican Cay and snorkel the reef there. It was some of the best snorkeling we've seen, lots of different fish and colorful corals. Back aboard Solstice, we packed up and headed over to Green Turtle Cay for lunch and a quick look around the town before continuing 20 miles north to Crab Cay. "Why the rush?" you ask. Well after listening to Dan, Dan, the Weatherman (actually Chris, but Dan rhymes better) we finally have our weather window starting on Monday. So here is the plan:

Tonight (Saturday) we'll be here in Crab Cay, then tomorrow it's 30 miles west to Great Sale Cay, where we will (Kevin will) change the oil in both engines and we'll get stuff ready to make the crossing. Then very early on Monday we will head west from Great Sale via Matanilla Shoal (the most northwestern point on the Little Bahama Bank) and onward to the Gulf Stream. From there it is north, as far as we can go in 36 hours since we only want to spend one night underway. We aren't sure how much of a boost we'll get from the Gulf Stream, so we will try for one of these four spots (whichever we can get to before dark on Tuesday): St. Augustine FL, Jacksonville FL, St. Mary's River GA, or Brunswick GA. Anyway the wind will be very light from the south, so we'll most likely motorsail with one engine. We will take three hour shifts on watch but it's most likely that we'll both be awake the entire time. A recently purchased half-case of Coca Cola (no Diet Coke to be found in Abaco) should ensure that we are fully caffeinated and alert.

We took a look at our Bahamian courtesy flag today. You fly a courtesy flag on the right side of the boat to show that you've "checked in" to the country. It never occurred to us to take it down during the squalls and after nearly five months, ours is shredded. The end of it is literally torn off and hanging by a thread. I sure hope we aren't stopped by any Bahamian Defense Force boats in the next 48 hours, since they would probably be irritated by the state of our dis-courtesy flag.

Where we are:
Lat: N 26 55.150'
Long: W 77 35.927'