We provisioned to the max in Rock Sound and headed to Cape Eluethera Marina for diesel and water before crossing over to the Exumas.  The marina was beautiful and Captain ByGeorgeIthinkhe’sgotit scooted into the fuel dock and backed into the marina slip like he’s been doing it all his life.  We spent two nights there.  The first night our friends from Windsent and Everafter were our neighbors and Joy took a spot next to us after they left.

We had unpleasant jobs to do.  Captain Betterhimthanme converted our front head to a sea water flush rather than continuing to use our precious fresh water, which I am told far too often that I flush far too often.  We argue about head use above all things.  I had the pleasure of discovering the recently bought chicken thighs leaked blood and eeeww all down the densely packed food and all over the fridge and its innards.  I got to take apart the fridge, including the insulation, to clean it out and defrost it.  I cleaned the boat, did laundry and since we had wifi, we did bills and taxes and annoying practical things that take ten times, no, twenty times longer than they do at home.  I read an email; I hope you are relaxed and pampered on your vacation.   They don’t read the blog.  I relayed the message to my cabana boy with doo doo on his hands.

We were walking down the dock when I noticed a man approaching us with a Leo’s t-shirt that could only be from our hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota.  In fact, his son is the town mayor and his wife is a well known local real estate agent.  It is a small world.

I noticed a group gathered at the end of the dock and a lot of activity in the water.  It is not unusual for fisherman to clean their catch and toss the guts to the waiting fish.  I wandered down to have a look.  In fact, they were young marine biologists trying to catch and tag bull sharks.  The nurse sharks were getting in the way so they were trying to separate the sharks by way of fish scraps.  The idea was to hook a bull shark with a huge piece of fish attached to a huge hook and a long line with a buoy on the end.  The shark takes off once hooked and a chase boat follows it by way of the buoy and then they tag it on the side of the boat once it has worn itself out.

They didn’t catch a bull shark but it was sure fun to watch them try.  I learned that nurse sharks and bull sharks look a lot alike.  The way to tell the difference is that nurse sharks have two dorsal fins and bull sharks have a V at the end of their tails.

We had a sundowner on the beautiful boat Joy with her people, Diana and John.  We gained lots of information about our next destination as we were leaving the following day for the Exumas.  There was a big Northerly blow coming that was to last three or four days.  They helped us choose a place in the Exumas to wait out the wind.