It’s Tuesday and we have not yet left Great Harbor Cay Marina. When I spoke to Chris Parker, the weather router, yesterday he thought that we could get going from here to head part of the way to Nassau around mid day today after the strong southerlies had let up and the squalls had passed.
However, when I spoke to him again this morning. He felt that it was best if we waited until Wednesday and left early in the morning to make the 65 mile run to Nassau in a single jump when the winds are calm. While it would be nice to have wind to sail, it is preferable to motor in flat calm conditions than to pound our way against the wind. To leave today, in addition to some strong squalls, would mean motoring into a moderate southerly wind and plenty bumpy seas left over from the very upwards of 30kt winds that hit us last evening.
However, all is not lost as it looks good for a sailing run to Over Yonder Cay from Nassau on Thursday. The wind is going to be a bit “sporty” though with 20+ forecasted to fill in from the northeast. Yes, that sounds like a lot of wind but it’s not nearly as much as we will face if we leave a day later as the winds will be up near 30kts for a few days, beginning on Friday.
As I sit here, shortly after noon, some particularly nasty squalls have come and gone reinforcing that we made the right call to say till Wednesday. Thank you Chris.
It’s going to tough to leave here and the simplicity of being at a dock with easy access to showers and plugged in to shore power. However, when I check out and get the bill or two weeks of power at $.75/KWH, it will probably seem a lot less convenient. However, electricity is very expensive in the out islands so I guess that’s par for the course.
I will also say that the crew here at Great Harbor Cay Marina is just great. Always willing to help.
Samantha in the office is always ready with a smile. Need a plane reservation? She’s ready to take care of it or call ahead to the market to be sure they have what you need in stock. 
Of course, it’s the detail oriented management style of Hans, always ready to roll up his sleeves, that keeps the place running and make it such a pleasant spot to be.
It’s a rare cruiser who stops to visit and leaves as planned. Once you are here you just won’t want to EVER leave. In fact, some boats don’t and end up here for the entire season.
As just one example of their attention to detail, every boat in the marina received a Valentine gift of candy delivered right to their boat by Ramone. What a nice touch and a great job to have, delivering candy to all the ladies. “Hey little girl, want some candy?”
Every Monday there is a pot luck dinner gathering and Trameco makes sure that there are fresh flowers on each table. Nice touch. And, he even plays drums at one of the local churches. 
You can see from this shot just how neat and tidy the place is. And the showers? They are spotless and cleaned multiple times a day.
Yes, it’s going to be hard to leave but if we don’t get on the move, we will never make it to Cuba.
On another subject, our boys Rob and Chris have never seen Pandora so they asked us to put together a “video tour”. Just for fun, I’ll share both here.
Yesterday, Brenda did a guided tour down below. I hope that you enjoy her great narration. Good job Brenda.Today I did a video of some of the highlights “topside”. Yes, I know that I am a poor substitute for Brenda and not nearly as charming in my delivery but you should be able to get some of the highlights.Well, think of us in the next few days as we begin moving south again and underway finally. However, we won’t likely have as good access to the Internet so I don’t know if my posts will be so “media heavy” for a while.
Don’t forget to check out “Where in the world is Pandora” on the home page. Yes, you can track our ever move, if you just can’t stand not knowing.
Details to come, as always.
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