currently in: Allan's Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

They say that once you've learned, you never forget how to ride a bicycle. We are happy to report that apparently you never forget how to cruise the Bahamas. Three days after checking into the country, we are in Full Cruising Mode. More specifically, we're in Fishing Mode.

The cold front blew through during the night, while we were tied up in the Chub Cay marina. The next day, after a long walk on the beach to assess the anchorage on the south side of the island, we moved Windom all of two miles, out of the marina basin and around to the anchorage. We dropped the hook in ten feet of clear water just off the white sand of the beach, and when we turned off the engine and breathed in the stillness it was as though all the muscles in our bodies relaxed at once. At anchor in a quiet cove in the Bahamas - that was it, what we'd been working toward ever since we got into the RV and pointed it southeast, and here we finally were.

So naturally, despite the chilly weather, we had to jump into the water with our pole spears. Just for practice, which it quickly became evident we need. But even if we're not yet up to free-diving to 40 feet, we enjoyed our little excursion and saw lots of grouper, porgies, and angelfish. We saw one ocean triggerfish, an odd-looking disc with fins that swims at a stately pace, and I saw an octopus hiding in a cave. Then Britt saw a big crustacean-leg poking out from under a ledge; I dove down and saw a mammoth lobster. My spear bounced right off its carapace, only knocking off one leg (we need to adjust the rubber which has a little too much give and therefore not enough oomph) but Britt dove down and finished the job, swimming back up with difficulty - and with one of the biggest lobsters we'd ever seen.

The next day, underway in the deep waters between the Berry Islands and Nassau, we hooked a mahi-mahi. I was closer to the rod and jumped on it; what fun it was to reel it in, to see the iridescent flashes of green and blue as the fish fought and leaped and finally tired. (And tired me out, too!) We didn't quite have our usual fish-catching method down, though. Our spray bottle of vodka had a hidden crack, so when I sprayed the booze into the mahi's gills I ended up getting it all over me instead, and the thrashing mahi sprayed blood on our side decks, something we try to avoid. But soon we had our fresh meat aboard.

With all this bounty of the sea, we're delighted to have folks to share it with. We'd been looking forward to finally meeting Douglas and Bernadette on Ithaka, as our paths have almost crossed several times. (They are fairly well-known cruisers, as Bernadette had been an editor of Cruising World and her columns continue to appear in that magazine; they also have a website, which most of you folks probably know about already!) We'd seen them in Newport, Rhode Island, as they left the harbor to set out on their cruise, and we'd exchanged a few words over the radio when we passed in opposite directions several years later near the Colombian island of Providencia in the western Caribbean. We have several cruising friends in common - when we finally got together and compared notes it amazed us how many there are! We've been to many of the same places and have had many of the same experiences, including that of being full-time cruisers who decide that they want something beyond full-time cruising. Both we and they are setting out for the second time after a long break ashore, and it's great to talk with people who understand our perspective and share our opinions - as well as our lobster and fish.

Now we're sitting in the Allan's Cay anchorage after sailing a little more than 40 miles to cover the 32-mile straight-line distance...okay, we took the scenic route, tacking this way and that rather than motoring, but it was a lovely day and we had lots of time. We'll hang out for a few days and eat the rest of the seafood in our fridge - so we can go fishing again.