Highborne Cay Marina

Friday, March 19

Yesterday we spent another lovely day in the park with partly cloudy skies. We had afternoon tea aboard s/v Altona, friends from Canada we met on the ICW, and a pot luck dinner with s/v Seawalk on our last night. We will miss them and wish them safe travels. May our paths meet again sometime. The hardest part of cruising is meeting up with such nice people and then having to leave and say good by!

Today we left our mooring by 8AM in 15-20k winds. the seas were 3-4' on the Exuma Banks side of the islands (shallow water). It was uncomfortable and Peter hand steered most of the way. We thought at first, Why did we leave?, but after 2 hours or so you get used to the rhythm of the boat and just don't go below!!After 5 hours we reached Highborne Cay and got a space in the marina. This island is privately owned and the marina is rented for transient use. Most boats are the fishing variety, and there are 2 mega yachts here too. There are only 14 slips for boats our size and dock space for 3 mega yachts. After 12 days with no services it was a relief to dispose of our trash (kept in the aft locker), wash down the boat, and refresh. Unfortunately we are sitting inside now, at 8PM, because the mosquitoes are swarming. Another thing you HAVE to have in the Bahamas are screens for your hatches. We did not have any mosquitoes on the way south but they appeared about 2 weeks ago. Bring lots of bug spray and anti itch cream!

We did a short walk across the island to the east side beach which is 3 miles long and beautiful!! It was absolutely calm on this side away from the wind. We bought lobster off a local fisher man and had that for dinner. Yummy!!! Tomorrow we hope to be at Allen's Cay, only a couple miles North. It is one of the few places where iguanas live. then we go to Nassau. We won't have Internet again until Nassau but you can see our boat track on the blog.

Love these "road" signs on Highborne Cay.