Last day in the Exumas - flight home

We rode to the airport in the morning with Dick and Lindy. They needed to go on home due to some previous commitments. But, we were free to stay....so we took that opportunity take some of our extra gear back to the airplane and to get a rental car.

The other crew members were due to depart in the afternoon on the airlines - so we'd be the only ones staying another day.

After pleasant goodbyes, we headed off to explore the Great Exuma island on the one and only road.....

Beautiful views of Exuma Sound.

Interesting stopover to read historical markers - this is a salt pond left over from the 1700's.  You can still see the remnants of the rock walls in the shallow pond (they're the dark lines you see).  They controlled the amount of water coming into the pond area via sluice gates.  The slaves and other workers had the horrible job of raking the ever concentrating salt-water from one area to the next.  The marker explained that the slaves had terrible ulcers on their skin and often went blind from the glare.

This tower is on the hill near the salt ponds - to serve as a beacon to ships coming from the Exuma Sound.

Beautiful views from the cliffs overlooking the Exuma Sound.

We drove the entire length of Great Exuma -here we went north to the small towns of Barraterre, Rolleville and Steventon.

Located the Shoreline beach bar - I had wanted to go there on the boat but the wind/seas kept us away.  Unluckily it was closed today!

Did make it to Big D's beach bar - it was open - we stopped in and had a beer and some grouper fingers.

And that was about it for our island tour!!

Watching the weather, we decided we better head home.....

Last views of the islands and beautiful water!

We decided we would have to clear in to US Customs at Ft. Lauderdale Executive airport instead of our usual Ft. Pierce.....the weather/storm was too bad to the north along the coastline.  When we came down thru the clouds, off to our right was our old stomping grounds.  Pompano Airport - where we trained for our private pilots certificates over 20 yrs ago - looks the same!

After a quick stop at Customs and refueling, we hopped back in the plane for the final, long leg to home.  This is the view most of the way.....nothing but white!  We dodged the storms by going thru central Florida instead of up the coastline like we usually do.

After 5 hours and 10 minutes sitting in the airplane in the same spot....we were finally home to green NC!  A great and memorable trip!

Time to turn the boat back in at Georgetown, Exuma

Time to cleanup and packup.....and take the boat back over to the Exuma Yacht Club dock.

Galley cleaned up and linens stripped from the berths.

A dreary ride back over to the dock in very gusty winds.

Luckily, Roston was available to come to the dock and catch our lines so we safely tied up to replenish the fuel and water we had used.

He gave the boat the "once over" to make sure we hadn't damaged anything (we hadn't!).

We made quick work of getting our numerous bags off the boat and onto the dock.

 We all headed to the Peace and Plenty resort just a few blocks away.  Nice rooms and we were all a little weary from the charter!   Nice dinner and a meet-up with some fellow travelers in their room for drinks and snacks.  Fun and relaxing.

No Sailing the Exumas! A rainy day at Stocking Island

Our 10 day charter is coming to a close.....and the weather is not the best ever....

Back to Chat n Chill for some.....

On a couple of interesting hikes for others...

Well marked trails.

Trail leads to another anchorage.

Signs warning about the Poisonwood Tree - we've seen this many times - don't touch!

View over to the "monument" on the far hill.    This is where we turned around based on the abundance of mosquitoes and no one thought to bring repellant!

Back at the boat, everyone is a bit subdued.

Windy and rainy.....

The boat was nicely equipped with pull down canvas curtains - this helped keep the wind and rain off in the cockpit!

We settled in for another game of Say Anything - good fun!

Richard found a new way to enjoy a good Scotch!  Take a water bottle that has been semi-frozen.  Pour Scotch over the tube of ice inside the bottle. Drink.  Repeat until ice disappears.

Meals today were just a combination of Chat n Chill bbq, conch salad and various left overs!  Weird combinations but good!

Sailing the Exumas - Little Farmer's Cut to Stocking Island

Interesting to watch the supply boat arrive.  It's clear that everyone on the island had something on that boat they needed to retrieve!  It's not like there's a Wal-Mart anywhere around....so this is their lifeline.

We also needed to get a couple of supplies - ice and some bread - so we dinghied back to the public dock.

That all taken care of, we headed out into the Exuma Sound in some pretty strong winds.....

See the slightly angry skies?

Really rowdy exit at Farmer's Cut!!!

Sailed all the way back to Stocking Island with a double reefed main and genoa since the winds and waves were strong.  Took about 5 1/2 hours....

After the exit at Farmer's Cut - the seas calmed a bit and the sail was not particularly exciting - most folks just read, or slept!

Went back to shore at Chat n Chill.....

The sign post to everywhere!   Oriental is in there - 670 miles!

At Chat n Chill -  Mango Daiquiri "with a rum floater".....yum!

Saw more of the rays - hovering near the conch stand for tidbits of food!

The conch stand disposes of their conch shells right on the beach.  I assume an occasional storm probably comes and washes them away!

Lindy relaxing with her daiquiri!

And Reid can't pass up an opportunity at a conch stand.

We sampled this young man's salad - maybe not quite as good as Ayden's at Little Farmer's Cay....but was good too!

Laurie used a pen and left our mark on the Chat n Chill stool!

Beautiful sunset!

And once again, the call for a game - this time rummy sent all 4 fellows scurrying for their berths!