It’s Tuesday late morning and we are sailing south toward Deltaville. I say Deltaville as I am not exactly sure where we will stop for sure but our plans are to continue moving with the idea of being in port before dark. At this time we are making good time, around 5.5 to 6.5kts. That’s good.
I guess SPOT will know where we are at the end of the day. For now, the sailing is terrific. A bit ago we passed a catamaran. I just love passing other boats and will never loose the thrill of seeing a boat from the stern and then the bow as I go past. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, to call Pandora “fast” is a relative term. It’s sort of like saying “my grass grows faster than your grass. So there!!!”.
I mention this as I spoke to them on the radio to say that I had taken some pictures of their boat as we passed. They took photos of Pandora so hopefully, we will be able to exchange them at some point soon. It seems that we are both headed to the same places. He did make a specific point that he wants to be somewhere where he doesn’t see his breath in the cabin when he wakes up in the morning. Good plan. It’s chance encounters like these that makes cruising so interesting.
Yesterday I took some photos of a boat we passed that had a neat hard dodger. This isn’t common and I thought that the design made the boat look more substantial. 
Speaking of substantial, how about this group of tugs. Pretty impressive group. When it comes to “form follows function”, tugs can’t be topped.
Last evening a couple from a catamaran nearby in the anchorage stopped by to say that they had seen us in the Exumas last winter. We exchanged cards and I expect that we will run into them again. It is a very small world.
Anyway, we are really moving along nicely and it’s good to be sailing as motoring isn’t that great and the fuel costs more than sailing. I won’t talk about how much sails cost. Sailing is good, the breeze just freshened and we are now going over 7kts. I’ll take it.
Near Solomon’s Island there is a significant Navy presence, with jets taking off and landing all the time. This is a photo of the base and hangers as we headed out today. It seems that when they went to the antenna/satellite dish store someone said, “I’ll take one of everything. No, make that three or everything. On second thought, how many do you think we can fit on 100 acres?” Your tax dollars at work.
“Oh yeah, how about a few patrol boats? And, make them look really old and throw in a bit of a “bannana republic” look while you are at it. I already spent my money on antennas with the last guy.” One of them came by us as we were sailing along.
There’s something in the cruising guide about a bombing range we should avoid. Good advice. The Navy has been hailing boats all morning telling them to stay clear of the range as they are going to be doing practice runs later today.
Speaking of bombs, we are bombing along on a broad reach at over 7kts. So, exactly where is that range? I don’t want to be a target and Pandora isn’t nearly fast enough to outrun a jet.