Well we are back home If you recall from the last post we were in West End in the Bahamas waiting for the wives to fly in and we were waiting for Celebration to rejoin us. Celebration was waiting for a weather window to sail from Great Sale to West End. They actually had to wait for two days at Great Sale. They were finally able to make it to West End on April 2. They arrived at almost the same time as the wives did. The wives took a 30 minute taxi ride from Freeport to West End as the weather was still not good enough to sail up to Freeport to meet them. We stayed at West End for four days, went for walks on the beach, snorkel, went to the straw bar, rode bikes, ate lobster, went to the straw bar, took the little sailboat out for ride, saw a water spout, went to the straw bar. I think you get the drift we just hung out and relaxed; it was great seeing the wives. A couple of nights we had a get together on the dock with all of the other boats. On Thursday we sailed or I should say motored up to Lucaya, which took about six hours. Lucaya is much more populated than any other Island we have visited on this trip. They had a lot of tourist stuff, stores, good restaurants and a casino. It was a nice change of pace, but I like the smaller Islands and towns better, where you can interact with the people more. The wives flew out on Saturday and we began our 54 hour sail home. Leaving the wives was hard, but we knew we would see them on Monday. We also had to leave Celebration behind as well as their crew of George and Freida; this too was hard because they had been so much of our everyday life for the last 6 weeks. They are staying in the Bahamas for another month and half, their kids are flying in May, staying a week and then they will be sailing home. We had an uneventful passage home; we had to motor and motor sail the whole way because of the lack of wind. The seas were calm. I do not know why but for some reason we saw more sharks than on any other trip we have been on. They seem to follow the boat; their fin would cross the wake of our boat then disappear. It really reminded me of buzzards. When I was farming I hated to see buzzards flying in a circle over head, I figured they knew something I didn’t. Apparently they did, I am not farming anymore. We saw dolphins as well. The first time I was on watch. Our watch schedule was two hours on and four off. Anyway it was at about 9:30 PM and I heard the dolphins coming up for air, they were no more than two feet from the side of the boat, I tried to touch them but was unable. I turned the flash light on and shined it in the water and just watched them swim. The next morning while I was on watch at about 11:00 AM two dolphins jumped out of the water about 3 feet at the same time, they are really something to watch. On the second day out we caught a Mahi Mahi at about 5 PM and had him for supper at 7 PM. We had new potatoes, salad and Mahi, not too bad for being in the middle of the Atlantic. If you were to ask me what was the most memorable things were on this trip, I would stay the beauty of the water, the views from the Islands, the first footprints on a sandy beach and last but not lease the people you meet along the way. We met people from all over the world; you very seldom get the last names, just their first names and the name of their boat. Then you have the Bahamian people which are great. Their favorite saying is “No Problem Mon”. They are just great to be around, they always speak when you pass them on the road, the kids are well mannered, I do not think I ever heard them swear and they will always help you. One quick example. A fellow cruiser was at a checkout line and the power went out. He could no longer pay with a credit card it had to be cash until the power was restored. He only had $20 dollars and his bill was $70. He told the cashier he would have to put some items back, then the Bahamian behind him said “No Problem Mon” and lent him the $50 dollars, drove him back to his boat, they had a beer and the Bahamian got his $50 dollars back. Jack has always said then when he gets too old to move and has to eat mash bananas he wants to think about the things he has done and not think about the things he has not done. With that in mind several years from now, if you should see a couple of old geezers sitting in the corner somewhere with a bowl of mash bananas and couple of stains on the front of our shirts sleeping with a smile on our face, we are just reliving the dream and thinking on our past adventures. Well that is about it for this year’s trip, we are all ready talking about next year’s adventure. You might want to keep up with the crew of Celebration as they continue their adventure on their blog; http://freidaandgeorge.blogspot.com/ The Crew of SV Martini We were living the Dream for 43 days and over a thousand miles.