We've begun out 10-12 week trip home from Black Point. The first leg of that journey was a three mile sail to Bitter Guana Cay to visit the iguanas still living there, barely defying the odds for their extinction. They've been elimnated from most Bahamian islands by dogs. No wonder they're bitter.

The second leg was a bit more ambitious - a 16 mile beam reach to Bell Island, which Carolyn Wardle always called "Beautiful Bell" in her morning weather surveys. Now the island is owned by the Aga Khan who caused a stir when he had a number of acres of Exuma Park (some say 5 acres, some 12) dredged to accomodate his yacht. There is speculation that his $1 million donation to the Bahamas National Trust may have helped make the dredging possible.

Leg 3 was a joy. We headed out Obrien's Cut and sailed the 34 miles across Exuma Sound to Cape Eleuthera on a fast close reach in five hours. After topping up our fuel tanks at the marina, we continued on to Rock Sound and its excellent supermarket.

The weather forecast for the next week is a good one for sailing northward inside Eleuthera, nothing but SE winds. Tomorrow we plan to stop at Tarpum Bay about 10 miles north of here. I've sailed past Tarpum Bay at least a dozen times but never stopped there. It's time I found out what, if anything, I've been missing.