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We arrived at San Salvador in the Bahamas on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 after 5 days and nights at sea. After tying up at a marina and clearing into the country, our first order of business was drying out - again. Yes, we took on enough water during the passage to get the boys' berths wet, our berth wet, and books and other stuff wet - again! It was not quite as bad as our last long wet passage (Key West to West End, Bahamas in April 2008), but bad enough to demoralize us again. At this point we believe we may have small leaks at some of the throughbolts holding our deck hardware on (stanchions, cleats, etc.). The leaks really seem to come principally during heavy weather offshore, and re-bedding all that hardware will be a real challenge, but it may have to go on our long-range boat maintenance plans. After spreading things out on the deck and dock to dry, we relaxed with rum drinks and celebrated our passage to the Bahamas. To put this offshore passage in perspective as a way to get to the Bahamas, later in our trip when we were anchored at George Town amongst several hundred other cruising boats, most of whom came to the Bahamas from the USA and Canada, during our many conversations we found only one other boat that had gone offshore for many days and nights in the Atlantic to get here - every other boat came via the ICW to Florida, then across on a short passage followed by day-hops through the islands. Not to brag too much, but most folks we talked with were pretty impressed with our offshore sailing accomplishment.

The day after we arrived in San Salvador, with things still scattered on the deck and dock to dry out (and Dave's brother Gary still with us, having joined us in Virginia for our passage to the Bahamas), we rented a golf cart and went all around the island. San Salvador is about 5 miles wide and 12 miles long, with one road that goes all around the perimeter. There are also many, many other wide roads that branch off into the interior and to the shores, all in very, very bad repair, and mostly leading to nowhere. It is as if 25 or 30 years ago someone had a grand plan to develop the island fully and installed the roads, but then ran out of money and no one came. No one lives in the interior of the island, and most of the island is deserted. About 1600 people live on San Salvador, mostly in Cockburn Town and in a other few small towns along the perimeter of the island, plus many scattered stand-alone houses and villas, some occupied and many obviously abandoned. There are lots of lakes and creeks, including one large inland lake of which Columbus said "it is so large that all of the ships of Christendom could anchor here." One of our first stops in the golf cart was the monument on the southwest side of the island, at Fernandez Bay, where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in the New World on October 12, 1492. It was really cool to be there, and a few days later we anchored in that bay very close to the monument, which is a large white cross placed in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the landing.

San Salvador is home to one of the three kerosene-fired, manually tended lighthouses in the Bahamas - the others are in Hope Town in the Abacos and at Matthew Town on Great Inagua Island. (We understand that there is only one other lighthouse in the world like these three Bahamian lighthouses.) We saw our first one in Hope Town last spring, where we went one evening with Franklin, the lighthouse keeper, to the top to watch him light it. These mechanically operated, kerosene vapor lights use huge Fresnel lenses to magnify the light from a flame that burns at a mantle much like a Coleman lantern mantle, and not much larger! They were built in England in the 1800s and still operate today. In addition to lighting them by hand, they must be wound like a clock every two hours at night, raising the weight that causes the great heavy lens to turn. The views from the top of the San Salvador lighthouse were absolutely grand - reefs stretching into deep blue waters to the north and east, and views of the interior lakes to the south. From the lighthouse we continued our golf cart tour around the island and arrived back at the marina just before sunset.

The Riding Rock Marina had a strong WiFi signal in their lodge, so we took advantage of having internet. Dave downloaded Skype and used it for a long conference call, with better voice quality than our Iridium satellite phone offers. Later in the Bahamas we learned that such strong signals are the exception, not the rule, and many places limit or prohibit the use of Skype as it takes up too much bandwidth. We also prepared for the arrival of Carol, Gary's wife, who was joining us from Houston for a week on board. Our original plans with Carol were to sail from San Salvador to George Town via Conception Island, but weather didn't cooperate so we had to stay at San Salvador for her week long visit.

Carol joined us on Thursday, December 11th and we pulled out of the marina area and sailed to French Bay on the south side of the island. It was pretty, but the anchorage was VERY rolly. Fairly strong northeast winds were forecast to continue to blow for several days, and we thought an anchorage on the south side of the island would offer the best protection. French Bay is bounded on the south by a long reef, but waves were breaking over the reef during our entire 3 day stay there and causing a terrible swell that just rolled us back and forth all day. What we didn't appreciate at the time, but do now, is that the swells were rolling south along the eastern shore of the island and wrapping around to roll back along the south coast and over the reef into our anchorage. At low tide the rolling was tolerable, but at high tide (with 3 more feet of water coming over the reef) it was almost unbearable. Although it was a rough anchorage, we were hesitant to leave because San Salvador has virtually no protected anchorages. There are a couple of similarly unprotected anchorages on the north side of the island, but that is where the wind was coming from. On the west side of the island there are long areas to anchor, but with no protection from the west at all, and we thought that there would be swells coming in that wouldn't even be broken by reef. So, we stayed at French Bay for a while. The bay waters turned out to be pretty rough for snorkeling during our stay, but we did get in a couple of short dives, and Joshua speared his first fish ever! We saw lionfish during our dives, which we had never seen in the wild. We also saw squid. Later we learned that the non-native lionfish, while beautiful, are absolutely destroying reef fish populations. They are voracious feeders, able to virtually clear reefs of juvenile fish, and they have no natural predators in the Atlantic. We also explored the south part of island on foot, including hiking up to the ruins of the pirate George Watling's mansion dating to the 1700s. After a few days, we couldn't take the rolling anymore and we moved to Fernandez Bay on the west side of the island where Columbus made landfall. It was much better there - normal movement, no rolling, and surprisingly, no real swell.

The next day we set sail for Conception Island, a little over 40 miles away. We had waited for winds and swells to lay down some, to under 20 knots and 10 feet. The swells had a long interval, and came from aft of the beam, so they did not present real difficulties for sailing. With the brisk winds we sailed under just a jib and a jigger (headsail and mizzen sail, not using the main sail). Shortly after leaving San Salvador we hooked a 28 inch mahi-mahi that Chris brought in by himself. After nearly 6 days at sea with Gary on board, and no fish at all (and just a couple of bites that were short-lived), we were pleased to have broken the fresh fish drought (but Gary, on hearing of our success, was a little bummed). We had a fast, pleasant sail to Conception, taking only six and half hours between anchor up and anchor down to cover the 39.6 nautical miles.

Conception Island is an uninhabited jewel of an island, just a couple of miles across and surrounded by crystal clear water, long white beaches of downy-soft sand, even longer coral reefs , and no other boats or people. We anchored in a calm bay on the west side

We wanted to make it to George Town by Christmas, so when we got a good weather forecast on December 22nd, we raised anchor and sailed away from Conception Island. This part of the Bahamas (San Salvador and Conception) is different from the Abacos (where we sailed last spring) in that the Abacos are on a large, shallow bank and moving from island to island generally entails sailing, sometimes for 10 or 12 hours, in water just 12 or 15 feet deep (and sometimes less). In the eastern part of the central Bahamas, such as San Salvador and Conception, many of the islands are surrounded by reef, but the deep ocean shelf is less than a mile away on all sides. Sailing into an island, you go from 1000+ feet to 700+ feet to 26 feet in a matter of minutes. So, going from island to island here means going out into the big wide ocean, and we have to be much more careful of weather and sea conditions. It just means we can't always leave when we want to. But with our light wind and gentle swell forecast, we sailed away from our Conception Island anchorage, going from 15 feet depths to over 1000 feet in less than a quarter mile. Once in the deep blue water we set sails and sailed most of the 45 mile trip to George Town under our new red, white and blue spinnaker.

Not far out of Conception, we sailed into a school of tuna, and both fishing reels were screaming within seconds of each other. Chris and Dave manned the poles while Josh got the gaff and fish blanket ready, and we landed first one, then two fish, each a couple of feet long. Our "fish blanket" is a large beach towel that, when wet, we can throw over a fish after we've landed it on deck. Once their eyes are covered up they tend to settle down. With Josh sitting on the two tuna under the towel, we put the lures back in the water and Whammo!, they hit again! We got a 3rd tuna on board, but as we were pulling the 4th in it gave a last heroic twist of its muscular body and broke the leader, dashing off to freedom (with our lure in its jaw). Dave quickly filleted the fish, putting several pounds of sushi grade tuna in the fridge. We love fresh tuna on Liberty, but . . . it just isn't as good as fresh mahi-mahi, our real favorite. Sooo, a couple of hours later - whizzzzz! went the reel, and next thing you know we had a nice mahi-mahi on board and in the fridge. This had to go down as one of our best sailing and fishing days ever!

On even our best sailing days we have to have some sailing excitement (read: near disaster!), and we got it as we approached the cut in the reef leading to the George Town anchorage. We were still sailing under spinnaker as we left Exuma Sound and sailed on to the Great Bahama Bank of which Great Exuma Island forms a part at the edge. Water depths quickly went from 2000 feet to 100 feet, and we were less than ½ mile from the cut in the reef. We turned on the engine, but it died within seconds. Dave knew he'd have to bleed the air from the diesel lines, a 20 minute process or so, and in the meantime on our present course of sail we'd go aground in minutes. Of course, the wind piped up at that exact moment; so when we were ready to douse the spinnaker, it became a fight to get it down quickly enough so we could head the boat back to deeper water while getting the engine running. We did sail off to safety, we did get the engine going, and we did make it through the cut safely within the next hour, but not without our not-untypical drama!

With favorable winds, we actually were able to sail in through the cut and sail the last 5 miles through the harbor to our chosen anchorage. By 4 pm on December 22nd, we had the anchor down at the edge of a group of around 30 boats, just off Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island across the bay from George Town. Every day at 2:30 pm ,cruisers congregate on the beach for volleyball, hanging out, and playing - there are lots of kids at George Town, and Chris and Josh have been looking forward to getting here.

Unlike many of our anchorages, where we may be the only boat, or one of 2 or 3 or even a dozen, George Town is the New York City of Bahamas cruising anchorages. By the height of the season there may be nearly 300 or 400 cruising boats anchored here, and there are lots of organized activities. Many of the boats at George Town get here, drop their anchors, and stay months, pulling up the hook only when ready to sail back to the US or Canada. While the organization and size of the cruising community here is not what we are looking for all the time, it is a nice place to be some of the time - especially during the holidays, when celebrating with other people is nice.

On Christmas Eve, we joined a host of other cruisers on the beach for a Christmas Eve program of readings from scripture and the story "Polar Express", carol singing (including Chris and Josh singing their own cruising version of Jingle Bells - look for the words in their journals), and socializing to celebrate the birth of Christ. Christmas Day we worshiped at the local Catholic church, then baked a ham on Liberty and were joined for Christmas dinner by the family aboard s/v Nutmeg out of North Carolina. We turned in early Christmas night to get a few hours sleep before Junkanoo, a real Bahamian celebration. The alarm clocks went off at 1:30 am, and we dinghied to the nearby beach to join 20 or so fellow cruisers for a 2 am water taxi ride across the mile wide bay to George Town where we participated in our first Junkanoo. Think Bahamian Mardi Gras, with "crews" that put together elaborate floats, costumed dancers, and loud musicians and drummers, dancing wildly through the streets - with the parades beginning at 3 am and lasting well into the next day! That's Junkanoo. The celebration dates back to a time when slaves were given 24 hours off each year, beginning at midnight at the end of Christmas Day. Not wanting to waste a minute, they began partying immediately, and into the next day (Boxing Day, celebrated as a holiday here as the Bahamas are part of the British Commonwealth). The tradition continues today, and we celebrated with the local Bahamians until the water taxi brought us back to Liberty at 6 am.

On December 1, 2008 Liberty was on the northern edge of North Carolina in freezing temperatures, and by December 26th we were celebrating Christmas in the local tradition at the end of our third week in the islands. Wow!

Dave, Nancy, Chris and Josh
Aboard SV Liberty, anchored in the waters of Elizabeth Harbour, George Town, Bahamas

Conception Island has a very large reef that runs about 5 miles north of the island. When we sailed in from San Salvador, we had to round the tip of this reef and then sail another hour alongside it before we were able to anchor at the island. One day when the northeast swells calmed down enough, we took the dingy out a mile or so up this reef. Huge stands of coral form the reef, with plenty of fish, but unfortunately much of the coral appeared dead, covered by a dusting of sand. It was pretty enough, but it made us yearn for some of our snorkeling in Belize on our first cruise three years ago, where equally large reefs were in pristine condition, packed with living coral in vibrant colors.

We spent 3 glorious days at Conception, enjoying much of what we really love about cruising - being the only boat in the anchorage, with no other people within 40 miles; enjoying gorgeous weather, and glorious sunrises and sunsets; getting school done every morning and exploring every afternoon; dining on fresh fish for dinner, and starting and ending our days with the rise and fall of the sun.

At Fernandez Bay, we anchored in sight of the Columbus monument and explored the pretty beach there. The next day we sailed a mile north and anchored in deep sand just off Cockburn Town, the main settlement on San Salvador. After a couple more days of relaxation, including occasional walks around Cockburn Town, Carol and Gary left us to return to Texas.

of the island, under sunny skies with crystal clear nights, the kind where you can see billions and billions of stars and God's handiwork in all it's nocturnal splendor. We snorkeled daily, and Dave sharpened his pole spear and put it to good effect on several fish, including several nice groupers. A nurse shark, a stingray, two trunkfish, and lots of other fish congregated under Liberty to feast on the scraps of Dave's hunting. A highlight of our stay at Conception was when we explored a huge mangrove-lined tidal creek in the interior of the island by dinghy, watching young sea turtles, stingrays and small sharks dart away as we slowly motored along. We walked and played on the beach daily, and did some beachcombing on the windward side beach, where all the detritus of modern life (mostly plastic, unfortunately) washes up.

Gary and Dave on the
beach at Fernandez Bay

Fernandez Bay where
Columbus made landfall

Atop the lighthouse
in San Salvador

Columbus Monument
at Fernandez Bay

Ruins of an old church

The lighthouse at
San Salvador

Gary and Carol

Joshua speared his first fish!

Ruins of pirate George Waitling's castle

Mahi-Mahi caught offshore

Liberty anchored at gorgeous
Conception Island

Dave, Chris & Josh
at the mangrove creek