Bermuda bound! No, really, we mean it this time...

Our overnight anchor spot ended up being lovely. We woke up to this view.

There was a little breeze, enough to make the air comfortable, and the waters were flat. Such a lovely area. We kind of wish we had spent more time here rather than waiting at Clifton Bay.

Our route to find fuel was long, and would take several hours. It was through shallow waters, some spots being very shallow, which meant standing at the bow looking for possible obstructions and hazards... the sun was super intense, so I covered up. But at least it was during daytime, the IALCS didn't need floodlights this time.

We had a quick breakfast and raised anchor, then started motoring north. The waters were very clear, allowing us to see all sorts of interesting things.

We saw lots of starfish, two nurse sharks, several different reef fish, and tons of sea cucumbers. So many sea cucumbers. None of which were captured on video. I was too focused on looking for obstructions to get more than this brief video...

The first marina we would come across as we motored north was Boat Harbour Marina (marked as waypoint 1 in the route map above), so the plan was to stop there. However, the user reviews revealed that they charge ridiculous dock fees ($100 just for your dinghy, much more for the catamaran), even if you buy fuel. That's a hard pass for us, so we continued on to the Man-O-War Cay marina. In retrospect, this was exactly the right choice.

We dropped anchor where other boats were anchored, out in the bay, not far from the channel entrance to the marina. We poured diesel from all 4 jugs into the main fuel tank, then lowered the dinghy and took the now-empty jugs to the marina to refill them.

By this point, there was practically no wind, and the sun was beating down on us. It was super sweaty.

We could see lots of starfish of different sizes and colors in the crystal clear waters. Also, a fair number of boat parts (a mast, some rigging, etc). The water got very shallow at one point, but we were able to pick our way through the shoaling and the various boats, some seemingly permanently anchored there, on to the fuel dock.

The dock towered over us. I figure the deck was nearly 6 feet up. I had to stretch to put the fuel jugs up, then I scaled the ladder to climb up, Adrian following after me.

As we carried the jugs to the pump, we saw a motor yacht beginning to depart. They had a dog on board named Diesel who was cute and very friendly. Do I know the names of the yacht owners? Obviously not. I'm "one of those" dog people... I'll forever remember the dog, of course. (I'm writing this a month later, a month filled with all manner of events, and I didn't need to look up the name of the dog.)

It didn't take long to fill the fuel jugs. Adrian settled the bill, then climbed down the ladder to the dinghy. I carefully lowered each jug down as far as I could, and Adrian managed to catch them and place them in the dinghy without incident. It took great balance and upper body strength to manage that feat.

We motored back to the boat, again enjoying the view both in and out of the water. In less than 30 minutes, we had the fuel jugs stowed in the aft cockpit and had the dinghy lifted up in the davits and secured for passage.

While Adrian and I were on our fuel run, poor Sue spent her "down time" repairing the sail bag. The previous night, I was heavy-handed while zipping it closed, and I broke the threads holding the zipper to the bag on one side. She was quite a trooper doing that in the hot sun, with no breeze, up on the coach roof.

We took a quick break to cool off, ate lunch, then raised anchor and motored out past the reefs and cays to resume our passage to Bermuda.

We waited until we were outside of the Bahamas territorial waters (12 nautical miles) before putting a lure in the water. Sue and Adrian "placed an order" for a Mahi Mahi.

Less than 30 minutes later, we heard the reel spinning. Fish on! It didn't take long for me to get my PFD on and get clipped in. From there, I think it was only 10-15 minutes to get the fish on board. It was a Mahi Mahi! And big enough to feed us for 3 hearty meals.

Note that this experience was exceptionally unusual. One does not simply say "I'm going to catch a Mahi" and then do so 30 minutes later. Having used up all of our luck on this fish, we were, of course, unable to catch another fish for the entire remainder of the trip.

Still, we were thankful to have caught this fish, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!