Leaving Nassau

He decided the next morning that we were going to leave and so I quickly strapped the boat down in the cabin while he pulled up all three anchors. We left Nassau about 9:20am and motored with an attempt to sail with the winds, but in the end we had to put down our sails because we were beating into the wind and the waves with the current against us until we got on the bank. It was quite rough due to the short period waves for most of our trip down and only when we got close to the Exumas did we get calmer seas. We had to watch out for coral heads on our way into Allan's Cay, which was quite demanding because the boat could get a hole if we ran into one and that would not bode well for us. We made it through just fine and could see the white cliffs of Allan's Cay and the other islands of northern Exumas. We didn't trust our GPS charts as we approached the channel for Allan's Cay because it looked deceiving with strategically placed rocks that appeared to block the entrance to the anchorage site. Luckily, we were able to see the channel when we went far enough south and we quickly turned around to enter the channel for the anchorage at Allan's Cay. We saw this was very good holding because the bottom was all sand in the anchorage and we threw out our anchors at about 6pm. We saw our Hungarian friends in the anchorage as well and we went to chat with them for a little while after we set our anchors and jumped in the clear, cool, blue-green waters to refresh ourselves from the hot day. They had gotten there the previous evening and Dan told us about some small grouper they caught with their sling spear gun on a beach located on the Atlantic side of the island and we got excited for fish as we didn't trawl due to the rough waters today and being on the bank. They had gotten here the previous day and invited us over for dinner the next evening. We made plans to go fishing the next morning as Dan told us the fish are just waiting to be caught in their caves. They also told us about the iguanas on the island and feeding them lettuce resulting in a horde of iguanas approaching them for food. We enjoyed a nice sunset with a small crescent moon and Jupiter (or some other planet due to its brightness). It was so pretty I decided to pull out my nice big camera to capture as much as I could. Unfortunately, after I turned it on I found the lens was out of focus and I couldn't tell if I was taking a good picture. JR looked at it and decided it was just the view finder lens that was out of place and he could fix it. We figured it was the rough passage that jostled the lens out of focus because I had the camera in is carrying case, but it was set on the kitchen table instead of its regular storage area on the couch. I assume the couch would have absorbed most of the shock and not transferred it to the camera case as the hard table did, but I learned the hard way and I will never put the camera on a table even it is in it's protective carrying case. I just hope that JR can fix it because I want to take so many more pictures and the camera on the cell phone is working on and off especially with the video option. There was no wind after we got in the anchorage so we had a pretty warm night. On the upside, we are in the Exumas finally and going to see some iguanas and hopefully eat some freshly caught fish. Dan said he saw grouper and squirrel fish where he was fishing today so we are excited to try and catch some with him tomorrow morning. He informed us that tourists come by the hundreds to go to the beach and see the iguanas in the day time so we should expect to see them while we are here. This is the first island we have visited without internet access because the islands here aren't really inhabited or developed. I will enjoy my time being disconnected from the rest of the world. :) I woke up in the middle of the night to lash the tiller down and went outside to hear the hundreds of nocturnal birds on Leaf Cay singing and millions of stars in the dark sky. It was beautiful and I really felt I was in paradise. But I went back to bed and enjoyed knowing that we finally made it this far and we have so much more to see and do. :)