Once again we are ready to leave, but the winds do not agree. Though I cannot deny how fun it is to be safely anchored while the weather rages outside. The family left yesterday; it was sad to see them go because I think everyone had a very good time; even though it was a circus as always. The food we ate I find difficult to forget. Santana's Lobsters and grouper took the cake (these and conch were the only items on the menu). It was Located in a small town on the southern tip of the island overlooking perfect water where Johnny Depp frequented while filming Pirates of the Caribbean.

Georgetown turned out to be such a better place to meet with the family. There isn't too much going on here, but just enough for a 4 day visit. One day we spent on the boat so they could get a taste of our routine. We sailed, snorkeled, cooked some honey mustard marinated mahi, and went to volleyball beach: ground zero of Cruiserville. I must say Cruiserville culture is strange, but I cannot get into it now. The next day we rented a car and drove the entire length of the island. This is when we found Santana's. The last day we hung out at the hotel beach.

Its strange to transition back to our food, our lifestyle and our isolation once again. Its great to hear about all the people back home in more detail. We've now got 8 days to make it through east winds 250 miles to Turks + Caicos to do it all over again.

He Haha. I feel like screaming and dancing... But I'm not. I'm writing. Writing to say that I have the poe shop song from Zelda: Ocarina of Time stuck in my head. It makes me silly and giddy. If I were to guess, this extremely remote anchorage just south of Cape Santa Maria has brought it on. Huge weather-beaten cliffs are sounding theird agony just to the north. Today we got just a taste of the open Caribbean Sea which will soon be our stomping grounds. I had forgotten what a big rolling ocean swell was like.

This morning a Bahamian dock worker told me about meeting Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp on the same dock where we were refueling in Gtown. The man kindly filled the rest of our water tank up for free after his North Irish boss left the vicinity.

In other news Carl Jung is blowing my mind up. Potatoes, fish, onions, and cabbage are stewing, and we are about to watch our third movie in 3 days: A New Hope. Yesterday was Office Space, the day before Goldeneye. Ha Hehe.

You are lucky I have not yet fallen asleep this evening. We have managed to fit ore tuna in our stomachs than waking men normally can, but that is nothing compared to that meat which hangs about my head. I mean this most literally. Most of the yellowfin tuna that was unlucky enough to cross paths with Grania is drying on fishing line inside the cabin. It didn't know any better and for that reason. I pitied the fish briefly before it was time for meat preparation. Eating this fish raw with soy sauce tasted me back to Japan.

We grilled, seared, and baked the mother as we watched the end of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. The Yoda scenes get me everytime. Tonight I even wept because size matters not.

Getting up at 6 is in every way superior except that my bed time is around 9 these days. If I physically could endure longer, I would. Alas, my legs get squirrely and my brain all silly and then it is time for sweep sleeting The whole... (I actually fell asleep writing the end of this being a bit drunk)

Man To Sail Around World To Decrease Awareness Of Important Issues

The account of an offshore passage is primarily a story of wind and waves. The southeast of 'Far Out' Bahamas is quite akin to an ocean desert. Many of the islands had anchorages so inhospitable that we didn't even consider them. Sadly that left us with no where to go...

The towns of the islands, according to our trusty 1999 chart courtesy of our forefather Zach Clemence, seemed so small that they truly earned the name 'settlement'. Worst of all for us is that the islands are arranged in such a way that a direct confrontation with the trade winds is inevitable (when on a schedule). For this reason, we left Rum Cay intending a 75 mile overnight that turned into a 200 mile non-stop trip to Turks and Caicos.

I had no idea that my time ashore on Conception Island would be our last taste of the Bahamas (at least until our return trip). There could have been no sweeter parting. That place was truly uninhabited and had managed to preserve a dignity and a wildness that was refreshingly natural and surprisingly rare compared to the Exumas. We reached a hill providing a vista of the interior that gave both of us the distinct feeling of being in the endless jungles of Africa.

The short 20 mile hop from Conception to Rum seemed an easy day to try out the spinnaker with a light north breeze. While Ted was setting it up I haphazardly tossed a lure in which an hour later baited a 45 lb. yellowfin tuna which we brought into the boat with our trusty gaff. We bled it, gutted it, and fileted as fast as we could and spent the rest of the day eating and drying so we could have spiced tuna jerky for the forseeable future.

We got to the shores of T+C this morning, boiled a pot of coffee, took a quick dip, reheated our vat of fish stew and watched Return of the Jedi to complete the trilogy. Those films never fail to stir a few feelings in me. I'm left in paradise not sure how to get higher.

The whole rest of the Journal is here