When I left England many of my sailing friends were green with envy, and I was greatly looking forward to almost permanent sailing weather. One of our marinas advertises the Bahamas as “the boating paradise of the world”. This is not entirely untrue, but you must have a big boat; 30 foot is about the minimum for comfortable living. Dinghy cruising is out of the question for two reasons: first, there are very few days with suitable winds, either none at all or much too much for comfort in a small boat. The second problem is sand-flies; there are many places which would be ideal anchorages but the bugs rule out any kind of camping on or near the shore except for a few weeks in the winter. Larger boats don’t have quite the same problem as they can either moor at a marina and plug in to mains electricity for fans etc., or they can fit wind socks over their forehatches and produce a relatively bug free breeze through the cabin.

In two weeks time I will be moving to the Turks and Caicos Islands which I am looking forward to, but I suspect that the climate will make dinghy cruising equally difficult. However, I am determined not to be beaten and so I have arranged to come home for two weeks cold wet cruising in the Solent in July!!