On May 10th some wind had returned and we departed Highborne Cay over the Exuma Bank for Rose Island, east of Nassau, New Providence. Donna was selecting all of our stops to be locations we had not visited during our prior season in the Bahamas that were reputed for snorkeling (she is such a snorkeling buff!) and that were essentially on a "straight line" trajectory from the Spanish Virgin Islands to our target landfall back in the US at Palm Beach, Florida—Lake Worth Inlet.     

The sail to Rose Island was a terrific close hauled sail which became a race vs a Dolphin 460 catamaran that also departed the Highborne anchorage a short while behind us. Pas de Deux was a bit faster and could point higher. Upon arriving on the south side of Rose Island, we had a tough time getting the anchor set. Several other boats seemed to be secure, but we spent almost two hours on eight attempts before getting a satisfactory set in sand and grass—very disappointing. In the meantime the Dolphin 460 arrived and set on the first try. Oh well. The next day we moved to the north side of the island and found some nice sand, a better anchorage, and decent snorkeling to boot! It turned out to be the favored destination of several day-sailing beach/snorkel charters that would come over from Nassau loaded with tourists. They were all gone by dinner time.

On May 12th we waited out a frontal TROF to pass from the north bringing a favorable wind shift from WNW to NNE before departing. There were some tense moments as we watched several approaching thunderstorms on radar. Luck was with us and the storms passed either side of us. The wind shift came at 9:45 am and we were underway soon afterwards for the Berry Islands. We arrived at Whale Cay in the Berrys at 2:30 pm after a fast 35 nm sail and anchored alone in shallow clear water over soft sand. Still no fish….

Over the next two days we moved north up the east side of the Berrys stopping at Bonds Cay and the lovely Soldier Cay. On our May 15th passage from Soldier Cay to Great Harbour, we were desperate to catch a food fish and chose to troll in 'cuda infested shallow water. As expected we landed a 'cuda in short order. But soon after that we landed a too-small-to-eat yellow tail snapper, renewing our faith that we might catch something else good to eat.

Toward the end of our route to Great Harbour something big and heavy took a bait. This was no 'cuda and after slowing the boat a bit Dave reeled in a fat 24-inch Grouper of some variety. Finally! After anchoring in Great Harbor we classified the fish using our field guide and determined it was a Black Grouper. We estimated it weighed between 10 and 15 pounds. Consulting our various cruising guides we also determined that Black Groupers are susceptible to carrying ciguatera toxin - especially the big ones over 5 pounds. So, reluctantly, we fed it to the sharks. Damn.

Great Harbour would be our staging location for the passage to the US coast. We also knew that we would experience forecasted intense area squalls while anchored there, which in fact we did overnight into May 16th. And intense they were. The lightning show started in the distance around midnight and by 3:00 am we were surrounded by near continuous lightning. Looking back, it was an amazing show, but at the time it was pretty tense. Like on the evening TV weather news, our radar had a big red blob bearing down on us so we knew when the rain would start. It rained very hard and at the height of the squalls we had sustained winds in the mid 30s. It was over just before day break and we sat out the rest of the day waiting for the weather to change to more favorable conditions for our passage to Florida.