Norman's Cay, Bahamas
24.36.114N
76.49.290W

With winds out of the east at 15-20 kts., we sailed from Highbourne to Norman's in about 2.5 hours. You bet cha man. We sailed! We put those white flappy things up and hauled booty all the way. At one point we were surging through pale to medium emerald green waters at 7.5 kts. No problem discerning where the sky and sea met yesterday. I really haven't figured out why one day the waters are a decisive green and others its more of a turquoise when both days are clear and blue and the bottom is sandy. We had to dodge coral heads working our way into the anchorage but at high noon on a clear day, it was no problem.

Once anchored, we took the dingy around to the interior of the island and located what was left of the plane that was so visibly pictured in the guide. These days the exposed portion is just about gone, however the portion underwater seems remarkably intact, at least as far as recognizing where the engines and wings were. The rest of dingy ride we spent in very shallow waters. A couple of times we had to break out the oars and row our way out of some pretty skinny water. We had tried to find where the caves that are located here were but finally gave up and decided we needed to bring our chart with us or at least consult it a little better before we just took off next time. McDuff's is no longer here; we saw a sign that reflected that the restaurant is under new management and was supposed to open in late November. I don't know how much more late November they expect but . . . we didn't see anything open. We think we identified what used to be the home of the notorious drug smuggler, Carlos Lehder; it looked pretty abandoned but the runway is still being used on a daily basis so we decided just to gaze from a distance.

Today we took advantage of the blue sky, warm temperatures and windy conditions to do laundry. I remember as a little girl getting my fingers run through a wringer on a neighbor's washer, so today as we did laundry by hand, I was very cautious about poking the clothes through the hand wringer we brought for this trip. Now I can empathize with what my foremothers must have gone through. Wash, wring, wring, rinse, wring, wring, hang to dry; I know Mom, there's supposed to be a second rinse, but I had run out of buckets. Anyway, we had lines strung all of the boat and by the time we were done, we had clothes dancing all over the place and sheets that would slap you in the face if you got too close. By noon, everything was dry, folded and returned to their lockers, including the clotheslines and buckets. I have to admit, I feel it in my back and shoulders tonight. Although this wasn't a difficult task, it wasn't easy either.

We broke out the hammock this afternoon and the rest of the day, we spent reading and relaxing. Tomorrow, if the winds die down, we'd like to go explore the caves (with our charts in hand, of course).