Position           26:06.12N 80:09:46W

Date                2200 Wednesday 14 March 2012

Intentions of moving out of the apartment and leaving on Tuesday were of course hopelessly optimistic.  The weather connived to assist us in making a sensible decision of delaying until Thursday or Friday to cross the Gulf Stream.  It did allow Elizabeth to get on her bike and do some more voyeuring.  She was particularly taken by this example of what is known locally, if not by its proud owner, as a McMansion.

Wednesday came and we actually moved out of our temporary home and moved back on board.  Just a couple of shots to show the privations that we have suffered over the last seven weeks.  We lived in the annex at the back of this photograph.

It really has been an excellent ‘des res’.  This is the upstairs living area:

And this the ground floor main bedroom:

Whilst we have been at Mandarin Island we have got to know our host Frank a little better.  He is 86 years old.  He was borne and brought up as a young child in a lighthouse off Plymouth , Massachusetts and spent some of his career in the merchant marine and the US Coast Guard.  In later years he has done a considerable amount of yacht delivery.  His garage is a treasure trove of nautical ephemera with a fine collection of wooden blocks, navigation lights, model boats and such items.

He also has some very impressive machinery for cutting, shaping and drilling wood and metal.  We are now the proud owners of a very upmarket second fender board courtesy made for us by Frank.  It puts the original made by me to shame!

Here you see Frank in Aladdin’s Cave, Fritz our next door boat owner and Frank’s man ‘what does’ in the garden.  I never summoned up the effrontery to ask Fritz why he walked around with asset of cans (large headphone) on.  Perhaps a severe case of “Men are from Mars”?

Provisioning was ably done by the Mate with Skipper as gopher.  A real find was a meat supermarket called Penn Dutch which helped fill the freezer with some excellent and very reasonably priced meet for our stay in the Bahamas.  Scare stories, undoubtedly true, of very high prices in the Bahamas were very much taken to heart by the Mate and Caduceus settled further into the water under the onslaught.

On Tuesday as we had spent the day packing up and preparing to move we decided to eat out and then pop into a supermarket for some things for breakfast.  We were a little late and surprised to find our Italian restaurant of choice shut.  We ate at the Quarterdeck and then to our surprise even though it was before 2300 found both local supermarkets shut.  It was not until half way through Wednesday when the dime dropped.  Daylight saving time had started the previous Sunday and nobody had told us!