Several lovely days

Kaye and David see us off
"In Dreams" at anchor, Double Breasted Cays
Marina, Spanish Cays
A little avian visitor to the hot tub
Yum!
Raconteur at Spanish Cays

With the help of Kaye and David, we made it off the dock at Riviera Beach Yacht Center around 1630 on Monday, and were approaching the Little Bahama Bank at Memory Rock by 0300 Tuesday morning. JP and Susan tacked and jibed, awaiting first light, and then we set off across the bank. Calm, beautiful conditions for motorsailing and sailing, and we were able to drop the hook at Great Sale Cay before 1700 on Tuesday. Wednesday we decided to make a detour for Double Breasted Cays, which are gorgeous. It's a "settled conditions" anchorage, at least if you are off the rocks versus between the rocks and the cay, but we were able to dinghy around, swim, visit the beach/sand bar, and meet up with Ken from "In Dreams" who had arrived ahead of us. Ken joined us for dinner and we had a great evening, swapping stories and drinking red wine. It was blowing rather harder Thursday so we decided to seek a little more shelter, and followed "In Dreams" to Crab Cay, about five nauticals from Spanish Cay. Yesterday, Ken headed on down toward Green Turtle, and after a rather gusty departure (Susan lost her Tilley Hat, and Leigh didn't think to set the MOB on the nav) we made a quick passage to Spanish Cay, cleared in, and spent the night docked at the marina. Fabulous spot, a favorite of the big sportfishing boats and large yachts, but very accomodating. Delicious dinner, ditto breakfast, and now we are heading back to gunkholing, this time at Powell Cay, only a few miles to the south.
The Atlantic is in a bit of a churn, so it will probably be Monday before we attempt Whale Cay Passage. Will be checking in again sometime...