We continue our journey up north through the Exuma Chain. Next stop: Black Point, Bahamas.

Even though its only about 10 miles north, it will provide everything we need for provisioning and protection from the heavy wind. And boy its HEAVY WIND out there! Bosco was pitching and rolling all night. It was a pretty uncomfortable night so we were happy to leave this morning.

The sky was covered in thick clouds and wind was 25-30 knots steady from the east. That didn’t deter us from raising the tiniest bit of main and jib to make passage. We have much more maneuverability so sailing is a good option. And it was AWESOME! Bosco flew at 5.5 knots.

We pulled around the last point of land (aptly known as Blackpoint), making our way up to the anchorage. As we cleared the land, we saw one mast, then 5, then a few dozen. I lost count, but the closer we got into harbor, the more boats we saw. This is definitely not our scene – whenever there are huge crowds in an anchorage, we like to turn the other way. But in this case, we really didn’t have much choice if we wanted to get provisions and water. So we chugged forward, hoping to find a free space to drop our anchor.

One strange thing occurred as we neared the shore, the wind and waves seemed to increase rather than decrease. Its definitely abnormal behavior. It also made the though of anchoring here much less appealing. Oh well, we’re here now lets give it a shot. And so we did. We found a spot pretty darn close to shore (closer than many boats would probably dare to go). And we found about 5.5 feet to be a perfect place to stop. Thankfully we were clear of any other boats and the chop seemed less intense. The wind was still strong though.

Jake didn’t feel comfortable here. He thought we were too close to the shore and other boats and in general, just didn’t like the vibe of the anchorage. I didn’t really care but figured we should at least try to provision. Then possibly, move on.

So he worked on getting the dinghy ready, loaded the water jugs and trash and went to shore. We were down about 40 gallons, so we’d have to do a few passes to top off. Meanwhile I prepped us a tasty chicken salad for lunch and did some “house cleaning”. After lunch, I accompanied Jake for the second run to fill up water. It went much faster but still took quite a bit of time. Its kind of amazing how long this seemingly simple chore takes. Plus, those water jugs are freaking HEAVY. I’m not so strong so it was harder for me to lug them. But I pulled my weight as best I could.

Once we finished and topped off the boat, we decided to hit the shore for a third time just to explore a bit. Blackpoint is small and simple, but extremely beautiful. The locals that we passed by on the streets were all so friendly, outgoing and helpful. We found a really cool street sign that pointed out all of the places we needed to visit (grocery, phone store, place to access wifi).

The grocery store was pretty bare bones. We learned that freight day was tomorrow, so we may come back to check it out. We also found a sign on the BTC store (which was just a few doors down) and its only open for 3 hours per week! Isn’t that craziness? Those 3 hours were tomorrow morning also, which solidified our decision to stay here for at least one night. The last thing on our list was to grab some FREE internet! Its been awhile since we’ve connected to the outside world. We learned of a restaurant, Lorraine’s, where we could connect and supposedly has the best bakery in town. It was a very cute little shop and the drinks were frosty and delicious.

One funny thing about Black Point is that there are no banks or ATMs on the island. And they don’t take credit cards anywhere. They only take cash, which is fine, but no change for anything over $20. All we had on us were two $50 bills. So we couldn’t buy anything and in essence, had no money. Lesson learned…stock up on lower denomination bills.

After we made our way back to Bosco Jake worked on some homemade calzones for dinner while I worked on the blog and video. But we were also pretty exhausted from all that we did today. This is the nature of life on the boat. Simple tasks are often not so and often take up an entire day’s worth of effort. We should be used to it by now!

The next morning we were up by 6AM. I could have slept several more hours but Jake was fussing in the kitchen, making it virtually impossible to fall back to sleep. So I guess I’ll get up too…haha.

It was a beautiful morning despite the wind. The sky was bright and blue and sunny. It was still very windy but felt good outside. We made our way to shore after breakfast, still pretty early, so that I could upload a video with the free wifi at Lorraine’s and Jake could finish up the errands. Of course the wifi was slow, so it took a few hours. Normally this sort of thing would drive me nuts but I’ve finally embraced the concept of “island time”, which basically means, time doesn’t exist or matter.

An adorable little puppy came over to visit us where we sat. He was SO FREAKING ADORABLE. To pass time, I chatted with the few locals who passed by and watched the children going into the elementary school, which happened to be next door. They were so cute dressed in their uniforms and seemed really excited to be there.

Jake topped up our phone (thankfully the BTC store took credit card). There was nothing good at the grocery store, even after freight, so we passed on that. It was still early when he finished his errands, so he went back to the boat to change the fuel filter and do engine maintenance before coming back to pick me up.

We came back to Bosco and it was only 1PM. At this point we could leave but decided to just stay another night. Mostly because why rush? We could take a nap and chill out and leave early tomorrow. So thats exactly what we did for the rest of the day. LOVE THAT. The anchorage felt much nicer as the day wore on and was absolutely beautiful at night.

One random lesson we’ve learned from this type of travel is no expectations. There are too many variables in every single day that often dictate what that day will bring – whether or not you decide to travel or accomplish some other errand or chore. And there are ALWAYS chores to be done. For us, we like a mix of relaxation and accomplishment in each day. Having an open mind about each day makes for a more enjoyable experience. And, if we are lucky, we might get 1 day out of every 2 weeks that is completely open for nothing but fun. Rare is that day.