More fun in the Exumas

Daryl and I diving on a plane wreck. Some of these islands in the Exumas were famous for drug smuggling in years gone by and there are quite a few planes that crashed around here, some of them making excellent dive sites.

The bakery at Black Point was this lady's kitchen, and we could choose from the selection on her table.

Multi-tasking here!

Flying the spinnaker, drying the laundry and drinking a coffee!

Having sundowners with friends in front of a beach fire is wonderful.

Motoring into Ft.Lauderdale, it will be good to have a little civilization for a change. We are looking forward to some good food ashore, and of course a bit of retail therapy too!

We shall be able to get some boat jobs done here, before we head further north.

What an amazing place this is, the smarter houses all have quays and you can park your yacht at the end of your garden. There are thousands of these houses here. The city is a network of canals, with opening bridges. I have never seen so many yachts anywhere.

Exumas

'No Rehearsal' sailing along, great to get some photos of us sailing at last. The wind is nearly always in the east here and makes sailing north a beam reach, what every sailor loves!

These nurse or sand sharks and rays at Staniel Cay come in around 5pm, when the local fishermen clean the day's catch and throw the scraps in the water.

Apparently harmless - but who would take the chance? Good entertainment on the quay with a G n T in hand though!

More things to feed! These pigs swim out to the dinghy for food scraps. They compete with the seagull above them and the fish below them, but do very well and are huge things as a result.

Bahamas

The crystal clear waters here make the snorkeling fabulous, there are some beautiful fish and colourful coral too.

It is also helpful when looking out for rocks and uncharted coral heads.

Our friends are following out of the anchorage, but keeping a sharp lookout too, the higher you are, the more you see!

Daryl and I have invested in a couple of pairs of polarized sunnies, worth every cent!

On Conception Island, we took our dinghy up a shallow channel inland, to see dozens of turtles bottom feeding.

Here are the mangroves that border either side.

Lisa's graduation

All the graduates met at Albert Park in the center of Auckland, it was a beautiful sunny day and there was a wonderful atmosphere in the air.

Lisa chatted to many of her fellow students and caught up with their news.

Then there was the walk to the Town Hall for the capping ceremony, led by a Cook Island band on the back of truck, great fun, and Queen street was closed off for the procession.

What a great day, I was so proud of my lovely Lisa. It is a day I shall never forget, and glad that Jay could join us too.

She is now a Bachelor in Performance and Screen Arts.

Lisa and I having a coffee in Cornwall Park, close to where she lives and works.

A lovely spot on a sunny day, I can never have too many flat whites!!!

Puerto Rico/ Turks and Caicos Islands

Our first anchorage in Puerto Rico. It was a weekend and all the local boats were there to watch a local air show. A great atmosphere as the jets flashed over the anchorage in formation.

In San Juan, there was a huge yacht, rumoured to be owned by a famous Russian, who shall remain nameless!

Here they are, winching the tender, a 52' yacht on board! On the other side is a 50' motor boat too! More money than sense.

In the Turks and Caicos Islands we met a remarkable man.

Andrea Stella is an Italian, who was shot in 2000 in Miami. He ended up in a wheelchair and had the crazy idea of crossing the ocean. He had a catamaran especially designed to accommodate the wheelchair and set off.

He now sails around the globe promoting the integration of disabled in society, taking as many as possible out sailing.

We had several good evenings with him and his crew. They had plenty of good 'prosecco' on board and we had just caught a Mahi-Mahi, so it made a good combination!!

Andrea's cat called Lo Spirito di Stella, with all the sponsorship stickers.

These waterspouts appeared behind us, we motored as fast as we could to get away. Apparently they are quite common in this part of the world because the sea temperature is high.

It all looked fairly scary to us though.

Leaving 'No Rehearsal' to go to the airport.

Anchored off the beach in crystal clear waters.

The Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands were beautiful, clear water and great snorkeling on the reefs in crystal clear water.

Met some good people and enjoyed some good food ashore too.

Necker Island is the home of

Richard Branson, and the flag was flying, so we assumed that he was home, but sadly we weren't invited for a drink though!!

Every evening at 5pm during Happy Hour, the locals feed the Tarpon. They are huge fish about a meter long and they fight over the tasty raw fish. Apparently great fun to catch, but very boney and not good eating, that's why they get to grow so big, I guess. A good crowd puller!

The local cocktail is a painkiller, which is excellent after a hard day in the sun!

Tortola quay and these two huge cruise ships almost look like the twin towers.

We wonder how they don't fall over after counting the decks.

The island of Culebrito is part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. We climbed up to the lighthouse and took this photo of the bay.

St. Maarten and Anguilla

We spent about a week in St Maarten, the island is split into a Dutch side and a French side. The two parts are very different, there are some good workshops on the Dutch side, but we prefer to dine in the French restaurants!

The marina is inside an opening bridge in the Simpson Lagoon.

This is chart picture on our Furuno screen or chart plotter. There are motor boats by the dozen! All indicated by a triangle, the really huge ones are a rectangle, and all have to squeeze through the opening bridge, Mirabella only had a foot of room either side!

(You can see the track of our boat took, it is the red line.)

Mirabella V, the largest sloop in the world, moored in the lagoon. It is huge and not particularly attractive.

The Heineken Regatta has just finished. At 5.30pm we would go to the Heineken bar alongside the opening bridge and watch the yachts come in at the end of each race day.

Off to Anguilla, a quieter spot with lovely beaches. Had to pay to visit the Marine Park and pick up a mooring buoy. We were looking forward to some excellent snorkeling, but we were very disappointed.

Enjoyed watching the pelicans dive for fish though.