Steve and Laura's Excellent Adventure

  While Jessie and Will were held captive at the Nassau airport, Steve and I spent the day after our arrival at the marina in Nassau preparing for our next guest, Daniele, a former coworker and good friend of ours from Siemens.  Relaxed Afternoon with Daniele We also spent time adjusting Starry Night's dock lines since we had been placed in a "double-wide" slip, C2, as shown below.  This meant that we had short lines on our starboard side so that we could get on and off the boat, but very long lines on the port side so that we could tie-off to the pilings on the port side dock.  We also had lines from the stern to the dock behind us but the choice of attachment points was quite limited. The process of tying up to a dock is actually much more complicated than it seems at first blush. Each degree of freedom needs to be considered to ensure that the boat is not pushed into the dock as the wind shifts and tide changes.   + Marina Map Securing Starry Night in a Double-Wide Spa

  Our daughter, Jessie, and son-in-law, Will, arrived a few hours after our nieces' departure. Although there were some last-minute changes in their flights that were frustrating for them, we were thrilled because they arrived half-a-day earlier than originally planned which allowed them to settle in and rest a bit for our departure the next morning.  Jessie and Will Aboard Starry Night The winds were not favorable for sailing the next day, but we motored - with a boost from the jib - to Allan's Cay, the island just north of Highbourne Cay.  We selected Allan's because the charts showed promising areas for snorkeling and also because within the next couple of days the wind was forecast to shift clockwise 270 degrees, starting from the east, all the way to northerly and be fairly gusty - up to 30 mph or so. We were greeted as we anchored by one of the many nurse sharks we encountered during our season in the Bahamas.  We are guessing that some boats feed them because there w