at anchor in Hope Town
The oceanside of Elbow Cay
Guana Cay
Tina cooking Thanksgiving Dinner in a Catalina 470 galley
My common watch, early morning, generally included sunrises.
November and December are chilly in the Chesapeake too so when an opportunity came up to help some cruisers in Annpolis get to the Bahamas came up I jumped on that. Jerry and Tina had started their journey on WhatKnot, a Catalina 470, 6 months before in the Great Lakes. They sailed down the St. Lawrence Seaway and down the east coast to Annapolis. They wanted extra crew to sail around Hatteras to Wilmington NC and then on to the Bahamas. They liked that I was a sailing teacher as they didn't have much experience sailing before this journey. We hit it off and had a great, but chilly time sailing the Chesapeake to Norfolk. The weather then sent us to the ICW to get to Wilmington rather than around Hatteras. Our ICW trip included a full turky dinner underway on Thanksgiving. I left them to family matters in Wilmington and then rejoined them a week later when a weather window opened to Green Turtle Cay. It was a great almost due south run with wind at our back and following seas just about the whole way. I stayed with them to Hope Town till it was time to head home for Christmas. That added another 22 days to my year on the water.