Ocean Reef Yacht Club,
Lucaya, Grand Bahamas
26 30.24 N 078 39.72 W

We left Emerald Bay Marina in Georgetown, Exumas on May 14th intent on taking our time cruising back north up the Exuma islands. Unfortunately our departure coincided with a change in weather patterns that brought more tropical weather conditions to the Bahamas for the last 2 weeks of May. This was the same weather that developed into tropical storms Alberto & Beryl. 

In Staniel Cay we finally got tired of the endless cloudy skies, humid air and  passing storm squalls. We had intentions of returning to the ORYC in Lucaya anyways so the poor weather was enough motivation to do it sooner rather than later. More critical, we were running low on gin and wine and needed to restock. 

We have been docked at ORYC now for 3 weeks in condo-mode and enjoying all the resort amenities. 

Some photos and destinations may seem familiar as we are retracing our southbound route for the most part. 

Kathy checking internet while we have lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Mark feeding the pigs at Big Majors They really loved the lettuce and veggie peels we brought.

Our next stop on our sail north was Shroud Cay which is in the central Exumas and part of the Land and Sea Park. The heavy cloud bank lifted briefly to allow us to enjoy a beautiful sunset that evening.

Sinbad sitting down for a lovely dinner of pasta and meatballs? We haven't yet broken it to him that he is a cat.

The Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island with Cruise ships at far right. Nassau is our least favorite Bahamian port. Thankfully, this was as close as we came to Nassau as we left Rose Island on Sunday morning 5/20 (Mark's birthday) traveling 65 miles to Great Stirrup Cay at the extreme north end of the Berry Island chain. 

Luckily, we continued to dodge most of the squally weather.

We were having breakfast while underway from Great Stirrup Cay to Grand Bahama when we looked behind us to see this water spout about 10 miles distant. A waterspout is a tornado occurring over water that forms a column of water and mist extending between the surface and the clouds above.

It turned hot and sunny as well as calm and windless crossing Northwest Providence Channel enroute to Lucaya.

Once we arrived at the yacht club and switched gears from cruising to "condo mode" (plugged in to dock power with air conditioner cranking) we decided to take advantage of the calm conditions to do a bit of bottom fishing over the reefs outside the marina entrance...

A bucket of Grunts made a nice fish fry that night for dinner.

We'll stay here enjoying all the amenities of resort living while we wait for the next weather window to take us back to the US. We are going to try for a three day passage up the Gulf Stream to make landfall in St. Simon's Island, GA. See you in July...