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It's been a week and time again for a Mom missive,

Windless sweaty days have driven Ryan and I into the water, snorkeling and wreck exploring. We've spent some time at motor on glassy seas without swell, which though boring from a sailing standpoint gave us the opportunity to visit rarely tenable anchorages. Lobster had been on the menu several times, sushi/sashimi daily as well, lots of fresh fish tacos and sandwiches and salads, Conch is on tomorrow's lunch plan. We even hooked a marlin for about 5 minutes, which though Hemingway-esque exciting, was probably best it got off the hook. The winds have returned and we are now underway again, but these last 3 days we've played castaway and haven't met another soul. Like Waterworld scavengers we snorkel-explored old ship-wrecks, one broken-back with ribs showing, metal moaning from the slight swell, showing and the occasional lobster hidden in the wreckage. The second ship-wreck we explored on foot after climbing aboard from the dingy, from pilothouse 30 feet above the aquamarine sea to the waist deep mercurial waters of the pitch dark engine room with flashlights in hand, then lounged on deck to view an ocean-melting sunset. There is a real spookiness to a shipwreck as one ponders its last moments afloat, one can feel the Captain and crew's fear and tension like remnant ghostly emotions of intensity, some hours still lingering from years way-back, when a crew scrambled for their lives. Anchors had been run out and set in vain those last minutes before the guts were ripped out of their steel bottoms. Several times more than normal I found myself staring at the Gypsy Soul moored alongside, worrying for her anchor and safety.

Today we watched as Manta Rays leapt from the waters off shore of a small deserted island where we setup a small camp dubbed 'The Man Ranch', which was just a bedsheet slung against the sun across some bamboo which we lashed together. There was another small wreck a hundred feet off shore, which we snorkeled and took photos of, swimming through the hatches and picking through the wreckage for a souvenir that Ryan's taking home to show his sons.

I am so happy to be dwelling in the remotes again, eating oceanic everything. The Bahamans are the warmest of Caribbean culture I have met to date, and I can certainly see how it would take a year at least to cruise the hundreds of islands and anchorages here. In only 4 days I already am certain Bahamas was the perfect choice to cap the Gypsy Soul's circumnavigate.

Wayne and Kim are flying in on the 18th of May and we are sailing for some days before heading to Key West, which will be Gypsy Soul's first Stateside landfall in more than 8 years.

I love you Mom, miss you,

ben