Luperon, Dominican Republic

We arrived in Long Cay in hopes that we would leave the next morning with a small weather window that had appeared. Well as quickly as it opened, it closed. Well....we already checked out of the country and legally we had 24 hours to leave but with the now closed weather window we weren't sure what to do. Guess we would wait it out. Its not like this island has anyone on it and the only people we see around are local fisherman and conch man going out early in the morning and returning late in the evening in their small fishing boats. I wanted to at least walk the island but as Dirk reminded me and we do try to play by the rules is that we were already checked out. We shouldnt be able to get off our boat. Days passed and the weather just would not cooperate. Where we were anchored wasn't to pleasant either as the swells from the ocean would wrap around and hit us on the side. We had two choices, suck it up or check back into the country. We elected to suck it up. I was even hoping for a day to float around in the water alongside the boat but it was far too rough for that even. Finally after 5 days we found a very small weather window. Dirk spoke with Chris Parker and he said that if we didnt take this window we may not see another one for at least a week and that one was questionable. Decisions, decisions.....we decided to go for it. We both knew ahead of time that the trip was not going to be pleasant. With the winds blowing the last several days we knew the seas would be at least 5 to 6 footers ontop of swells. Plus the wind was still blowing in the 16 to 18 gusting to 25 ish knots. Well after leaving Long Cay before lunch we arrived in Luperon 22 hours later. We were worried that we would arrive to the harbor before daylight but as we were getting close to the island the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. I do remember reading in a book about being able to smell The DR before seeing it and it was so true. It smelled like fresh farmland and manure. Not in a bad way either, it smelled like earth. Im not sure what I was really expecting but the more that came into view as the sun rose the more surprised I was. This vast land of rolling mountains coming out of the sea was amazing. I have seen mountains before, but always by flying over them or driving to them and you see the landscape change as you go. Here it was Wham! Hello, in your face, Im here type of a mountain. After living in flat areas all my life, traveling in the Bahamas where its all flat, its nice to see terraine.

Sun was rising and this was what I saw.

We knew once we got in from the other rat pack emails that we would need to contact Papo on the radio and he would show us to our mooring ball. He would lead us to deeper water to anchor but for $2.00 a day for a mooring ball you cant beat that. Dirk hailed him on the radio and he told us he would meet us in the cut in 5 minutes.

Papo and brother Freddie leading us in.

PaPo and from What I gathered was his brother Freddie soon came out to meet us and we followed them into the bay and up to the mooring ball where they took our lines and fed them through for us. Ha, look at that, we were right behind Dea Latis whom we had traveled with a bit a couple years ago. We also noted other boats we were familiar with as being part of our pack heading south. Yea, we caught up....

A rainbow appeared shortly after we made it into the anchorage.

Pabo then headed into town to retrieve some of the officials to check us in. Not sure who they all were, but soon Pabo returned with 5 men, one in military uniform, two others seemed to work for him as they are the ones that had the forms and were filling out papers and writing out stuff. The other two were probably just lookers on that caught a ride to see. Pabo also joined the group as our interpreter. Men were all business till I broke out cookies and cokes then all hands were in, they were not shy and helped themselves. After the cookies and cokes were gone and paperwork complete they left and we were told to then go into town to see immigration and customs. Found the dinghy dock and walked past the fishing fleet before finding the trailer.

The wait area outside of customs

We filled out more paperwork, paid our $93.00 entry fee, passports were stamped and we were told to go next door for agriculture and immigration. The office was bare except for two desk and a couple chairs. No computers here, its all done on paper still and you need to have your own pen. No lights, no a/c, well there was a lone wasp that occupied the trailer. The ag guy was sitting outside as it was cooler there than in the office and he filled out a paper, asked if we had any fruits or veggies on board which we replied yes to. He asked where we bought them and then said $10.00. We paid and he said he would come to our boat in the morning at nine to look around. We were also told that the tax person and immigrations man was not in, come back tomorrow. Oh well, we tried to get it all done today but what can I say, it was after all Easter Sunday, we should just be glad they were there at all. Afterwards we went in search of food and found the marina our friends had told us about. They were having a BBQ starting at noon so we headed over. We found several cruisers/rat pack that we had been cruising with were there also and we combined tables so we could all sit together. Dirk and I both ordered the grande Presidente beers that we had heard so much about.

The Rat Pack

We had heard about how cheap food and beer was here and for 860 pesos which is about $18 or 19 dollars we both had big plates of food With grilled chicken, grilled veggies rice and a 24 oz beer a piece. Afterwards we hung out just a bit before heading back to Renegade for some much needed sleep. It was still early so we ended up taking a 3 hour nap, waking at about 5 pm. By 8:30 we were back in bed watching a movie and soon after that sound asleep till after 8am the next morning. I got up, made coffee and expected the agriculture gentleman to be here at 9Am, 9:30, no man, at almost 10 he showed up and looked at the basket with 5 onions in it and another basket with one apple and 3 oranges in it. Asked again where I bought them and said okay, I could keep them. Asked if we had any animals and we said we have a cat. He asked for paperwork on the cat and I had his folder open and Dirk was digging through the other papers we keep in another folder. He asked if the cat ever got off the boat, we said no and he said no matter we were done. No need to show any papers. As he left he saw the garbage bag on deck and took it to throw in the International garbage bin.

This is where we must throw all garbage from outside the country. Seems a great place to keep it, right next to the water where when it gets full they burn it then keep on adding. Since we wanted to check out town, exchange some money for pesos and eat we loaded into the dinghy and headed to the dock. We still needed to visit immigration and get our tourist cards and pay for the port tax. Back to the trailers we went and paid $20.00 for two cards and then paid the tax lady $10.00 for port tax. What that goes for we have no clue. Guess its to pay for the use of the water to float your boat in. Anyway we left there and asked a gentleman how to get to a bank and how to buy internet. Communication here is by speaking slowly and hand gestures. Even then the message doesnt come across easily. Darn it, where was my english to spanish dictionary again? Thats right, on the boat.....we finally got the jest of what he was saying and he us,so we went on our way down the street.

Reminds me of what Cuba might look like

We managed to find the internet place and signed up for a couple weeks. Very cheap at $18.00 for two weeks I would say. So now we are settling in, catching up with everyone and enjoying the culture. So many things are planned such as going to the 27 waterfalls at Puerta Plata and a day trip on a motorscooter or motorcycle which everyone uses for transportation around here. I saw 3 grown men riding on one and another man with what looked like a freezer on the back of his. At about $10.00 a day rental for one you cant beat it. Stay tuned and I will update as we go along.

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Providenciales Turks & Caicos

We left our anchorage at 4am in the dark of night and set our course to Provo. About 7 of the boats from the Rat Pack was in Sapodilla Bay anchored. About 12 miles out we were told that we would need to check in with Provo Radio. Apparently Provo Radio is like DEA, search and rescue type all in one. They basically monitor radar and watch all traffic coming into their waters and traveling through and out. We called in to let them know our intentions and he said to radio them back when we anchored as he had some questions. We did call him back once we anchored amongest the other pack but he told us to stand by and never came back. Oh well. We did our part.

This was our route from Mayaguana to Providenciales

Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning to head over to Long Cay or Six Hill Cays. It would be a full day to get there across the banks and then the following day we would stage at Big Sand Cay for our jump to the Dominican Republic. We did not check in to the country and just flew our Q flag which is standard protocol. We pulled anchor at sunrise and started our trek south east. The winds cooperated at first but then we began taking them more head on. They were light so no biggie. Dolphins even came by to play in our bow wake.

We were about 4 hours into the trip when Dirk noticed one of our shrouds seemed a bit too loose. He did all the rigging on this boat so he knew how they were adjusted. We put the sail down and looked again, still loose, so he got his gauge out and measured the tension. All of them seemed loose. This wasnt good....he went below and discovered that our compression post was beginning to mushroom out and collapse. This was really not good. We talked to others on the radio and called marinas but with this being Sunday no one could really help us. Our only safe option was to turn back and return to Sapadilla Bay, wait till morning and try to hail marinas on the radio to see if there was a boatyard. We ended up being anchored by s/v Victorias Ghost who had also left with the group still sitting in the anchorage. Later that evening they radioed us and told us they were waiting on a new water pump to come in as on the way down theirs began to leak. They were renting a car in the morning and asked if we would like a ride around town to pick up groceries and since they were heading to the Caicos Marina and shipyard to check on the pump we tagged along to see if we couldnt talk to the boatyard to see if they could help us out. First order of business though was to properly check into the country. Dirk went to customs as soon as they were open which was an hour late this day. Guess they had a good weekend. He then returned to the boat, picked me up and we proceeded to head into the beach where we would leave our dinghy for the day. We did some running around and thank goodness they drove as it is the British way of driving and cars. Steering wheels on the wrong side, drive on the wrong side. More than my brain can handle......we ran lots of errands, ate lunch and checked out the boatyard. Yes they could help us.......we would wait a couple days before heading in as some bad weather was coming and we wanted to be in a secure place for that. Didnt want to spend anymore money then this was already gonna cost us. We also stopped at an IGA, wow, this was the first real grocery store I had been into in months. The selections were overwhelming, the deli section made me drool. Some items were more expensive than the Bahamas such as butter, same brand almost $3.00 more. Most items were cheaper. We bought some needed items and headed back to the boat to start thinking about this compression post issue. On the way back we noticed a new boat in the anchorage and we stopped in to say hello. They had just come from the Dominican Republic and were heading north. The following morning we talked to them again and managed to do a swap of some Caribbean charts for an older version of the ICW charts and some Caribbean charts. They also gave us a very nice Dominican Republic courtesy flag. Nice swap all in all. A day later we motored the hour to the marina and tied against the wall. The following morning we would have the fabricator of the new compression post come by to take a look. In the end Dirk and he worked a solution to the problem that would not require us to remove the mast. Whew, that saves alot of labor and money not having to rent a boom truck at $150.00 an hour.

The view of the marina from the boat. Its very small but its used for dive boats to base from and boats having work done.

My view while I did laundry

Basically what Dirk and the gentleman that helped did was first to jack up and brace the mast after loosening the shrouds just a bit. Once the weight was off they cut the compression post above where the rusted area was making sure there was good post left.

At this point the guy left to start fabricating a new boot and plate while Dirk worked to grind off the bolts and prep the post for the new boot. He was able to save many hours of paying these guys over $100.00 an hour that they charge for labor. Once he removed the old post he took it over to the shop and short time later we had the new boot and post to trial fit.

This is the bootm of the old post. You can see where it started failing.

New parts to trial fit.

Dirk was able to get the part back to him in time for it to be compleated that day.

The new section of compression post installed.

Well that was a lot less painful then we thought at first. Dirk spent the next day tuning the rigging and making sure all was a go while I did another load of laundry. We would wait a day or two before leaving as there was a weather window opening to head to the DR. Alice from the catamaran behind us Wild Vanilla was going into town, had a car and asked if we would like to tag along. I said sure as it would give me a chance to re supply my fruits and veggies once again. We stopped at this box store called Sunny's and were happy to see some really good prices. We bought a few case lots of stuff that we would use and they also had a non case area too. Then it was onto the IGA one more time for last minute items before returning to the boat. The following morning Dirk let the marina know that we were checking out and to call customs as they would come there to clear us out. Out intention was to clear out then head out the channel of the marina and instead of taking the hour back to Sapadilla Bay, just anchor close to the island which would save us time heading across the banks the next day. Next morning we arose early and made our way to Long Cay where we would stage for our crossing. The winds were not playing nice, 18 to 20 knots, gusting to 25. It was cloudy on and off which made it hard to see the coral heads one must dodge the 38 miles to get there. At one point while I was at the helm of course we heard a small thump as it was too late for me to turn once I figured the dark area was not a cloud. No harm done thank goodness, but from then on I avoided all dark areas, clouds or not. It took us so long to get here as the wind of course was coming from the wrong direction that we finally made it into the anchorage as the sun was setting which isnt good. There are so many coral heads in these parts and most of it is not charted. We crawled in and set the anchor then Dirk took the dinghy around looking at all suspect areas around us to make sure we were clear. We were.....time for a sundowner after that day. The boat was very salty as we took so many waves off the side that they would splash up and over. Oh well, not doing anything tonight and we would be on the move again tomorrow anyway. Or would we?

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On Our Way South

As we were waiting on weather to leave we met up with several other cruisers that were headed out also. We kept in touch via radio and had a couple meetings on our different destinations and routes. We would meet at Chat and Chill beach, charts, ipads, and notebooks at the ready. We would come to be known as the Chat & Chill Rat Pack.

On the 15th of March we finally pulled anchor and headed out the South cut with our sights on Rum Cay. To get to Rum you have go to the north end of Long Island. We would have liked to stop at Long Island but we were on crunch time and it would have to wait till the return trip. It was a long day as it took us about 11 and 1/2 hours to make the run with the wind almost directly on our nose.

The numbers are where I sent my spots from. Each leg is approximately 4 hours

We all set anchor in Rum to settle in for a good night rest while several other boats elected to bypass Rum and keep going to Mayaguana and even others shooting directly to Puerto Rico. Seems bypassing Rum may not have been a bad idea as the next morning as we were pulling anchor we all complained how rolly the anchorage was and how no one got any sleep. Our next leg would be an overnighter to Mayaguana, 27 hours in fact. During the daylight hours sometime Dirk was able to hook and get into the boat an intact mahi. No sharks sharing with us this time.

The day drug on and soon the sun set to a complete black night. We all kept ourselves awake with radio chatter checking in on each other and playing dodgeball with the big cruise ships and freighters that seem to pass too close. The moon finally rose right before the sun and soon we began to see land. Of course once we spotted land it was still many hours till we reached our anchorage. At one point I was sitting staring into space when I thought I saw a splash in the water, my eyes were tired so I wasnt sure what I saw. I then saw it again but only saw a couple shots of water being blown into the air. Hummmm, I turned to Dirk and said I think I see whales, sure enough, we were in the migratory waters of the humpback whales. Very cool but scary too. I have seen the videos of whales encountering sailboats. Anyway we radioed the boat behind us as we knew they had two kids aboard and wanted to make sure they got to see them. They were closer then us and saw one breach very close to the boat. By this time we were close to our anchorage and could see some of our pack already anchored. Looking at the display you could see the boats that have AIS as it looks like a parade.

Once we had the anchor down we settled in for the evening. We decided that we wanted to stay an extra day and check out the reefs here as this is one of the furthest and most unvisited islands in the Bahamas. There arent too many residents here as it is usually used for a fishing village. A buddy boat Tangent also decided to stay a couple days extra too.

This shows our route from georgetown to Mayaguana

The following morning Dirk and Andy from Tangent along with their son Drew took off in search of something to hunt. It was a productive morning as they returned with a 20 pound Nassau Grouper. They went to the outer reefs and so had to get the grouper carefully while being watched by 3 reef sharks. Quiet the excitement that I could care less to hear about. After they moved on and couldnt find any lobster big enough they decided to return to the boat.

A bit later in the afternoon I asked Dirk to take me to walk the beach. I only found one seabean and pretty much no shells. Oh well....so on the return trip to the boat we spotted some small coral heads that we thought might be fun to snorkel. We went down and low and behold there were several lobsters sitting in holes just waving. Not the place we thought we might find them but sometimes you never know. Soon Andy and his son Drew who had been hunting some small corals came by to see if we had any luck as they had not spotted anything. They were in the water in a heartbeat once they saw we were finding lobster. We ended up with a nice addition to the grouper.

Two slipper lobster and two spiny

The following day the guys decided to have one more hunting day as we would leave the following day. Another grouper, this one about 12 pounds, and a few more lobster were added to the freezer. That would be the last of anything we could stuff in the freezer.

We decided between us all that we had enough seafood to have a feast with. That evening we headed over to Tangent ahd had lobster balls, lobster dip, seared Mahi, and grouper fingers. Wow, it was all delicious and we all stuffed ourselves. The next morning was spent cleaning up the decks, raising the dinghy and getting the boat prepped for the short trip to the Southeast anchorage where we would stage for our crossing to the Turks and Caicos. That evening we pulled into the anchorage, set the hook and Dirk dove in to check the anchor. While checking it he found a conch laying right under the boat so he picked it up and proceeded to make his last conch salad. It was early to bed as we had a 3:30am wakeup to make the trip south. But not without toasting the last of the Bahama Islands with a cold Bahaiman Kalik.

Turks & Caicos, here we come.....

The Q flag is ready

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A Link to Dirk Playing The Sax on the Beach

http://youtu.be/NyNXsrSuiYI

Finally on the move

We waited in Staniel Cay area dodging cold fronts till our part was flown in on the 17th. In the meantime We met new and old friends coming and going.

One of Many beautiful sunsets we experienced

One day our friends Val and Ray on M/V Valkyrie decided to put on a little music jam session on the beach. Jim on Pirate provided the propane for the grill and everyone brought what they wanted to cook along with something to share. Dirk had started playing the saxophone last year, so they asked if he would bring it to the beach to play. They had all the equipment, keyboards, guitars and such, Jim provided the tent and Dirk brought his amp and sax. It was a great turn out of old and new friends and a beautiful day on top of that.

Let the entertainment begin

Sing it Janie

Dirk and his first time playing in public

Play it Dirk

What a beautiful day and a full parking lot

Fixing a bit of conch salad

On the 17th our part arrived from Canada to Fort Lauderdale and same day was flown over to Staniel on the 3:00 Watermakes flight. By that evening Dirk had the new replacement part installed and we were making power once again. Everybody decided that since we would all start going in our own directions that we should have one more party on Pirate Beach so one boater provided the fish, another the shrimp and french fries. We all brought the sides and a fish fry we had. Thanks goes out to the men for tending the hot oil and cooking as we socialized. Lots of Corn toss was played, food eaten and conversation had.

Corn toss

Dirk and I with Birgit from M/V Moonrise

On the 22nd we finally managed to pull ourselves away from Staniel Cay. Finally the weather would cooperate for a couple days. We decided to travel the outside route as Dirk wanted to fish and we thought it might be a nice sail. Our goal would be to get to Rudder Cut Cay. On the way we got 2 Mahi, one was decent size, not huge and the other was only half a fish. As Dirk was reeling it in he saw what he thought to be a second Mahi fighting for the bait but it was actually a shark attacking the poor Mahi. Dirk reeled and reeled till we got it in a saved a bit of meat for us.

What the shark left us

With the two fish we still managed to get alot of meat from them. We pulled into The cut and cozied up to the shoreline, dropped the anchor and had a wonderful evening with sundowners on the back deck. We were just south of Musha Cay which is owned by David Copperfield. He has put a statue of a mermaid with a piano under the water by the Ruddar Cay in about 10 feet of water so we decided to have a look see the next morning. This is not my photo, something I pulled off the web but it looked just like this. Dirk had his go pro and took some cool video.

We also explored just a bit before we headed back to the boat showered and picked up anchor to head south to Rat Cay. Several of the boats we had been hanging with the last couple weeks were there also and left about an hour or two before us. On the radio all we kep hearing was fish on, fish on. One in the box, two in the box and so on. We hadn't had one bite.....guess our luck ran out yesterday. Between 2 of them I think they landed a total of 6. Oh well....they kept heading to Georgetown and we pulled into Rat Cay for the evening and anchored with the only other boat there. Dirk decided since he had no luck on the outside that he wanted to try lobstering a bit. We took the dinghy close to the outside but it was far too rough and he settled on finding some conch, which he did, three of them. Back to the boat, clean up, make dinner and call it an evening. The following morning we Headed to Emerald Bay Marina. Its the first one we have been in since leaving our marina in Merritt Island.But first he wanted to back track a bit to the area our fellow boaters caught the Mahi at the day before. No luck except a barracuda which we hate to catch as they are a bear to get off your line. We finally gave up and started heading south again. When we got about a mile north off solider cay we had a hit. I jumped behind the wheel as usual taking directions on which direction to turn. Whatever we had on was big, it kept diving and swimming away as the line just kept buzzing off the reel. What did we have? Dirk fought it for sometime and soon began to tire. He thought at one point the fish got off or tired as it quit fighting so much. When he finally got it to the boat we couldnt believe it. It was a huge Wahoo, the biggest we had ever seen. I held onto the line as Dirk tried to gaff it but kept missing. Finally he got a good hold right in the gill plate right before the hook just dropped out of its mouth. Im scampering around trying to figure out how to help him get this thing on board. He finally heaved it over the life lines and onto the deck. About a third of the wahoo had been bitten clean off by a shark! And were glad it was as we would have never landed it if it were still fighting to the end. As it was, it had just about bled out by the time we got it on board. Dirk was so tired but set to work. He ran below to get his scale but found it was too heavy.

One happy but tired man

Thats a heck of a fillet

We got some nice steaks

He weighed each fillet he got off the sides and they were 20 pounds, when he had nothing but the carcess left it was 30 pounds. So all in all what he got on board was a 70 pound fish. We estimated that had it been whole it would have weighed about 100 pounds. That was one big fish and we managed to get 40 pounds of meat from it. Now what to do with it all, our freezer space is only so large. We ended up giving some away to friends who dont have such good luck when fishing.

We got some nice steaks

I managed the boat as Dirk cleaned up a bit and before we knew it we were at the entrance to Emerald bay. We stop here for several reasons, one, they have 50 cent a foot dockage on the seawall. This is new as you use to have to get the $1.00 slip which is cheap too. The wall is a bit of a walk to the main building but we just dinghed right over. They also have free, yes free laundry which in itself pays for more than a day. You are required to pay for a minimum of three days regardless of how long you stay. We were planning on three anyway. They also have free wifi and a great cruisers lounge with pool table and big screen TV. We pulled in and headed to the fuel dock. Its an easy in and out so we decided to fill the tanks here. It would be the first time putting fuel in since we left our marina. After filling up we headed to the seawall and Dirk did an outstanding job of parallel parking between two other boats.

Dirk enjoying the A/C, free wifi and TV.

The following day our friends Kate and Steve from Blue Summit came in to the marina so they could prepare to pick up their daughter. We decided to rent a car together on the 28th and head into Georgetown to reprovision. Figured it would be alot easier that way then via dinghy. We hit the Exuma Market and the Prime Island Meat Market which had a great selection and if you call them the day before with an order will freeze it for you. Guess they know it taxes a cruisers freezer trying to freeze meat. I didnt have much room but I was craving chicken and beef at this point and got a few pounds of each. When we returned to the marina we put the refrigerated goods away and walked over to a nearby restaurant to have a late lunch where the bartender/ waitress set us up with some incredible rum drinks Bahamian style. Basically, so strong that Dirk went to bed for nap time when we got back to the boat. With the windsbeing so bad we ended up staying in Emerald Bay for about 8 days. The winter fronts keep coming back to back making travel really hard. But it did give me time to catch up on the blog and I managed to was a couple loads a day playing catch up, its a busy place that laundry room. That is unless you get there at 5am which I cant do. After 8 days we decided to untie the dock lines and head for Georgetown, the cruising regatta was over so the chaos should be over. We ended up having pretty high seas to the point we both had to take seasickness medicine. That doesnt happen too often. Lucky for us it was a short trip but the 2 to 3 hours it took felt like an eternity. We finally made it and searched the anchorage for a place to go finally setteling on a spot by Monument Beach ther wasnt much space so like many others had to anchor in the channel. The next morning abot 30 boats were leaving so we found a spot closer to shore next to Moonrise. All the friends old and new from Pirate Beach were here and we met up with them on Volleyball Beach for a jam session that Valkyrie had organized. They had some great talent show up so we decided to do it again a couple days later which would be Dirks Birthday. He turned a milestone 50 and I wanted to do something special but it is hard to organize anything when friends and family are so spread out. I baked him a Rum cake and made him his favorite, Key lime pie. We headed to the Chat & Chill beach for a wonderful array of returning talent and some new. Dirk got up and did several songs. So proud of him as he has been practing a lot and getting so much better. He also seems to be getting a bit more relaxed in front of strangers.

Dirk the Birthday boy

I was planning on taking him to dinner at St. Francis Resort but Val asked if we would like to join them on their boat for drinks. I left it up to Dirk and he accepted the invite. She and Ray invited a couple other boats over and we all threw a little last minute munchie stuff together and met for a great evening with new friends. The next couple days were spent doing last minute shopping and stocking up for the trip south. Now we would have to be patient and sit a bit longer to wait on weather.......

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Dirk's Guest Appearance And Take on The Grounding

I had told Nancy a while back that I would "Guest write" the blog every once in a while, mainly when something went wrong in a big way.  Well, it is that time again. It was a dark and stormy day..actually it was daytime, sunny and about 75degrees, but that wouldn't make for a good story.  So there I was, IMC, upside down and my air medals were dangling.. All jokes aside now.  It was in the late afternoon and we came back on the outside, meaning in the deeper water, from Warderick Wells to Staniel Cay .  We made it through the cut with no problems as we had done numerous times before.  From there it is only a few miles along a channel to get to the anchorage for the night.  We were all in the cockpit, talking and not really paying attention, which was my first mistake.  As we came by the fuel dock and the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, I looked at the Chart plotter, which showed me just a little off to the port side of our many previously recorded tracks.  My next look was to the depth finder, which showed about 6 1/2 feet.  Keep in mind that we need to have 5 1/2 feet not to go thump, thump, stop.  We did have the sun setting in our faces, which prevented us from seeing the different colors of the water.  The channel is normally easy to see since it is deeper and therefore has darker water.  I asked Nancy to help me by keeping an eye on the depth with me.  No sooner then I said that, it went thump, thump, thump stop. We now showed less than 5 feet under us, which I could confirm by the lack of movement of the boat in the water.  The port side was about 2 feet out of the water and the starboard side was not.  We were leaning a pretty good bit to the starboard side.  Luckily the tide was at dead low and was starting to come in.  So if we only wait 5-6 hours, we should be floating again.  NOT!!  The little, well reef that I decided to visit was getting shallower in front of us, meaning that when the tide comes up, and we start moving forward from that strong current, we will get pushed further onto the reef and may become the new permanent resident here.  Our only way was to get back off this reef the way we came.  That however was easier said than done.  We all couldn't believe that we did this, but no one freaked out (too much).  My first concern was the boat, but since we have almost a 2 inch thick hull and a full keel that is 18 inches wide I was not too concerned.  I got on my snorkel gear and took a look under water.  Yeap, we were stuck.  As I looked around the reef, I saw lots of other places where boats had sat and left their mark on the hard coral bottom.  After realizing that we were not taking on water, Larry and I tried to get the second anchor set behind us, therefore preventing us from drifting further forward once the tide comes in.  Only having a 75lb spare anchor with 100 foot chain made it impossible to get the anchor were we needed it to be.  So we put it back in the dinghy and kept brainstorming.  A dinghy from the Motor Yacht " Nota Bene" had come by earlier and offered their assistance.  So in my dinghy I went and talked to the Captain of the boat, who was very nice and told me that he would be over in a few minutes.  He had a close to 20 foot dinghy with a 90hp motor on it.  Hopefully that will do it.  We got back to Renegade as Bobby and Francie from S/V Barefootin stopped by, telling me that the locals in the bar were taking bets on how long we would be stuck there. So now we had 2 dinghies to help us and the tide was rising too.  The plan was to pull us back with the big tender, while Bobbie would push our nose over, so that we would be going into deeper water.  It must have taken both dinghies, and me in full reverse, about 45 minutes, but we started moving and got of the reef into deeper water.  Just in time too.  Looking to the north, there was a nasty squall line coming our way.  We made it about 1/2 mile to find some cover behind an island, threw out the anchor and didn't even have time to back down on it.  The squall took care of that for us.  I am so glad we got off the reef when we did.  If the squall would have caught us on there, it could possibly have had a different ending.  That being said, a big thanks to all the helped, and Larry and Lisa, for not freaking out(too much) LOL I needed to scrape the barnacles of my keel anyway.