Left Galliot as soon as there was good light to see the water in the cut. The other boat left before us and we followed. There was a little current against the wind but the wind was light and the waves were not high. We once again ventured beyond the depths of our depth-finder as we entered the Exuma Sound.
Soon, we were able to raise the sails and progressed from motor sailing to sailing with full main and genoa, to reefed main and genoa as the wind picked up. We had a rare west wind for much of the day, bad for a Bahama anchorage but great for sailing down the sound.
Our goal was to average 5 knots as we wanted to have enough light for mooring at the end. We averaged about 6 knots and arrived at Conch Cut to enter Elizabeth Harbor around 2:20. There were many other boats making the passage with us. At one point we counted 10 boats behind us and 8 boats ahead. We were on the slower side but it was a beautiful sail with no wave action.
After we entered the harbor it was a winding route around reefs and bars to get to the anchorages and moorings. We had a reservation for mooring ball 18 in the Gaviota Bay mooring field. We picked up our ball and tied up. We could see Georgetown across the harbor.
About 20 minutes after we tied up Jeff from Nautilus appeared in his dinghy to welcome us. I did not recognize him at first. The last time we were together, he was dressed in his wool knitted hat and thick jacket. We made plans for happy hour pizza at the Snappy Turtle.
Jeff and Deb picked us up in their dinghy as we had not yet launched Fat Tuesday. We dinghied into the Stocking Island Harbor. The St Francis Marina and resort has a nice dinghy dock and the restaurant is right there. Jeff and Deb pointed out holes one , two and three, different places in the harbor there. There are a lot of houseboats there. Sometimes there are events on them. The houseboats in hole 1 are all named for tropical fruit.
They also told us about other locations in the harbor. Each location has a name to tell others about your location. We are currently at Chat and Chill. That is the beach restaurant across from us. It closes at 4 so it is quiet at night.
We returned to our boat around 630. We were tired. It was warm on the boat but we will not say we were hot because of all of those freezing at home. We looked at all the boat lights in the harbor. With a light breeze and little to worry about, there was opportunity for a good night’s sleep.