After being holed up in Red Shanks the time had come the Captain said… to move on out! Long Island was the natural choice since the crew was not ready to head anywhere resembling north of Elizabeth Harbor. The 40nm trip of mostly motor-sailing (the wind was more E than predicted) brought us into a pleasantly plump harbor with at least 15 boats in Thompson Bay and several more anchored off Long Island Breeze where we dropped the hook.

Friday was a busy day: laundry and a LIB Happy Hour (or two) at 4:30. We met a bunch of young cruising couples and unexpectedly re-connected with s/v Magpie2 a Leopard 40 who we’d met last Feb in Eleuthera. Her owners, Laurie and Jim are great folks from Maine and even though they are continuing south to Trinidad this season, we’re pretty sure we will see them again.

Saturday found us and many others checking out the goods at the weekly Farmers’ Market up on the hill in the old school building. Interesting produce items such as plantains, corn, sour oranges that look like large limes, turban squash, collard greens, and a few other things I couldn’t identify, plus baked goods and handcrafts. Word was that the growing season had been blessed with generous rainfall and the harvest was bountiful. No hurricanes either.

A rainy afternoon killed our beach walk, but we arrived at Magpie2 on time, the Captain forcing me to go in the rain even though I told him they would figure we’d wait until it stopped. He laughed at me of course, but I had the last laugh when we were greeted with amazement that we’d braved the rain. Ha. 

We caught up with each other since last we met at the Barefoot Man concert last March in Abaco. Laurie prepared a yummy squash soup served with add-your-own garnishments (like bacon), bread and some sort of rum infused muffins for dessert. She likes to cook. Tomorrow they’d head up to the north end of Long Island, then Conception before traveling further south, while we… who knows. The weather would dictate our next move.