We have not fallen off the edge of the earth, although we may be close to it.
We are still in the far southern islands of the Bahamas (the Jumentos) and have been here for about five weeks. As I stated earlier this is a remote area with many small islands (Cays) and few residents. There is one settlement on the far south island, Ragged Island, that has about sixty permanent residents and the only cell tower. Unless we make a special trip down there we are without cell service and Internet. There is a small store that has a few supplies but that is all. We had planned to stay here for a couple of weeks before working our way up the island chain to Central Bahamas and then make our way back to the US. That changed when we found that we are able, using another boats (Bluejacket) Internet, to place a food order from a store in Nassau and have it delivered on the weekly supply boat. That has been a major game changer for the boat that are here. We have about fifteen boats that move around to the various anchorages but base themselves at Hog Cay. This is the social center with a shelter built on the beach with fire pits for evening gatherings.
The Bahamas have put together various protocols to deal with the pandemic including curfews, shutdowns and lock-downs. Every weekend the islands are in complete lock-down starting Friday evening until Monday morning. After conversations with the local Royal Defense Force Officials we are exempt from some of the rules. We are required to have no association with the locals. This is not a problem since there are none on any of the islands except Ragged Island. They do monitor our comings and goings as we move about but are mostly on the watch for boats arriving. Everyone has been here for a month or more so we are able to get together for evening cocktails, watching the sun go down, for a birthday party, anniversaries and for morning water aerobics.
We have moved around a few times, going down to the south end of Ragged to get cell service and to hunt for conch. We have found a small bay that we have been able to collect conch and have been enjoying that fixed a variety of ways. Some of the boat go out fishing but we have not tried that yet, we want to conserve our fuel. We have been doing some exploring with the dinghy to check out the beaches for sea-beans which we have collected quite a lot of and search for conch. We have visited several of the other Cays to add some variety and to get off by ourselves.
We have been keeping busy with some small projects, reading (I am rereading most of what I have on my kindles), and Cori has taken up beach cleaning. For several weeks she has been going across to the ocean side and has been gathering up the junk that has washed up and has been burning it. There is an unbelievable amount of garbage that washes up on these beaches.
The weather has been steady with sunny skies and light winds usually from the NE to SE. We just had another weather front move down to us with winds clocking around giving us a wind from the west which is a problem because there is very little protection from a west wind. The forecast was for light winds but it kicked up a bit and as it continued around we had a night with the boat rolling with anything out of place going flying. By morning it continued around and we again had the island blocking the wind and waves. It was a very uncomfortable night. This week we have had another weather front approach us and we had several days of rain, the first in a long time. The boat is finally clean of salt residue and Cori has started polishing the stainless hardware again.
Our plans are always changing but with hurricane season ready to begin and the first named storm off the east coast we feel that it is time to move on. We plan to make our way north through the Bahamas then make the crossing to Florida or wherever on the east coast depending on the weather.
I want to thank our neighbors on Persephone for the use of their WiFi to send this post.
