Fine, we'll just have pizza

The unseasonably cold weather means we are making a lot of
pizza, muffins, and cookies. Yes, 70's is cold.

Last night we went to the Berry Islands Club at Frazier's Hog Cay, which reportedly has the best conch salad (sort of like ceviche with conch). Unfortunately, you have to give the proprietor at least two hours notice if you want to order food. The cruisers that were there enjoying their food had not only ordered it earlier that morning, they had waited around for two days for the proprietor to come back to the restaurant. As we stood there--forlornly denied any food--one of the diners exclaimed enthusiastically, "This is the best conch I've had all season!" Matt turned and joked, "Really? You're going to rave about the food right in front of us when we can't have any?" The woman said, "Sorry. But it really is!"

Earlier in the day we had caught another barracuda--a little guy this time. Unfortunately, no eating those guys because of ciguatera.

Today we are anchored at West End on New Providence (the island where Nassau is). There is a nice national park here where we spent the afternoon. We can see this guy's place from our boat. It is all lit up at night and is quite a sight.

We were feeling bad because the cable for our wind instrument severed itself and will need to be repaired (cruising really is fixing your boat in exotic locations). But then we talked to the other catamaran owners that are anchored here (a Belgian family with three boys). They have been here for two weeks, and will probably be here another week, building their own rudders because the existing ones had rusted out. That is impressive anywhere and especially here. Fortunately we are not facing anything as serious as that. Yet. Never say never at this point.

It is unusually windy and wavy here today. When we were coming in, the normally clear channel was filled with breaking waves that we sped down as we entered. We held our collective breaths as we hit the bottom of the surf, hoping we weren't getting dumped into a shallow area on the other side.

We are headed out either tomorrow or the next day for the Exumas, gradually making our way to Georgetown. Internet access has been and will continue to be spotty, so we will update when we can.