Judy Bramhall

After watching space ex explode anther rocket last night, and a mediocre dinner at the Snappy turtle, we headed south this morning to the exuma national park for one last snorkeling experience. . And yet again we were treated to some gorgeous water outside of the cut featuring 15-20’ rocks with sandy nooks and crannies everywhere. This trip really opened my eyes to the thrill of underwater adventure. Especially with Sophie and Andrew supplying all the best gear and basically guiding us on every dive:-) what a treat. Over in georgetown we were a little underwhelmed…. But likely we were just a bit melancholy about leaving. So we headed back out to Willow for one more fabulous sunset, a couple of proper “Willows” (the signature drink of tequila, fresh lime and a touch of grapefruit) a d a delicious dinner of mahi mahi. Top of the line in every aspect. Thank you Sophie and Andrew for bringing us on a trip of a lifetime. You two are really living a great life together. We will miss you both and Douggie too as we return home, but look forward to jumping back aboard Willow at the end of April to help you start your journey northward.

A nice 18-25kt wind on a beam reach and hit 8.4 SOG…. A perfect day for sailing. Ended up with one reef in the main and one in the jib. The seas were relatively calm with long rolling downwind swells and a favorable current. Made excellent time. Boat handled really well even in the bigger( 30kt) puffs!! The team sailed well putting in the reefs on time and efficiently. After navigating through hundreds of boats, we found a nice anchorage south of the harbor on stocking island. Amazing number of boats here…. But we found yet another gorgeous and basically deserted beach after a Short hike to the west side and were treated to a mile of gorgeous sandy windswept coastline…. Stocking island is just across the bay from Georgetown where we will look forward to exploring tomorrow. As excited as we are to see this town, it’s ultimately sad as it signifies the end of our journey…. What an epic trip. Just loved each and every minute of it. !!

It was a pretty windy day. We had to go directly up wind so we motored on the west side, pretty far off land to stay in deep water but then we found a route into Alan Cay and once again we were completely surprised and blown away by the beauty of what we found. It was so pretty and calm that we decided to stay the rest of the day and paddle-board, swim and explore. Tomorrow will sail the 38 mile journey to Georgetown in a nice southerly broad reach…15-20 kts is the forecast .

25-35kts out of the ESE and we were content to stay in our beautiful cove for the day….

We have some strong southerly winds coming the next few days but we also have 37miles to get to great exuma by Thursday…. So we poked out into the ocean to cover some ground but it was pretty bumpy so we decided to duck back inside. And we found yet another absolutely stunning little cove all to ourselves! We swam and walked and fished and kited all afternoon. No fish but it was another great flat. I fished the end of the dropping and then again on the incoming. Where are all the fish?

It was a calm morning and we made an early departure southbound. Took the western route in hopes of catching something we could eat on the troll but no luck. We did get a barracuda but the hope of a mahi or wahoo is still evading us. We tried to set anchor at an eastern island near Musha Cay but the wind and tide were a bit much so we moved outside to an awesome bay/anchorage. Looks like we’ll spend all afternoon exploring this one! And not long after lunch Andrew speared a huge lobster and also shot his first grouper so we’ll be eating fresh fish tonight after all! …. Judy and Sophie paddle boarded to shore and found some incredible trails that led to beautiful vistas while I took the dinghy around through the southern cut and waded some incredible flats, but unfortunately I didn’t find any bonefish.

We left Dundas caves around 2 PM and were blessed with a ten knot northeast breeze which gave us 5 kn over the ground under sail. It was a beautiful sail down to Staniel Cay through some pretty water and some unbelievably massive yachts. Staniel proved to be more fun than we had expected as we went out to a cool little bar called the Staniel Cay yacht club and had some good food and good times.

Another absolutely stunning journey through the Exuma national park. Passing Johnnie Depps very cool island, we wove through the inner cays until we arrived at the Dundas caves where we swam amongst gorgeous coral before finding our way up into the caves, which had a lot of pirate vibes…. Every turn we made today was absolutely stunning!!.