Update Cayman Islands   

I did some emailing to local marine environmental groups and learned  "Studly" our frisky dolphin friend, is well-known in the area as "Stinky."  He is a lone dolphin, which is unusual,  who has interacted with boaters and divers for over 3 years.  Lara, a dolphin trainer at Dolphin Cove, wrote  me that his behavior (maturbating on our anchor chain) is not uncommon for adolescent or mature male dolphins.  Her team watched the videos we posted and told Ben and Rachel, who dinghied to Dolphin Cove on an general explore, that dolphin vocalizations and jaw-snapping are aggressive behavior.  So, we were perhaps lucky, and surely dumb, to swim with him, mistakenly thinking he was encouraging and enjoying our company.  Perhaps he was feeling possessive about Act III's goddess bow and wanted her all to himself.  It was still a thrilling interaction.

Backing up in time:  our first stop after leaving Key West was Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles west of KW.  There are no services there, just a small quiet anchorage surrounded by a spectacularly beautiful bird sanctuary that made us feel like we were in The Birds movie, and an uncompleted fort.  When the US bought Florida from Spain, they thought Dry Tortugas--so  named because there is no fresh water source-- would be a perfect location for a fort to control the lucrative  shipping  (pillaging) between Mexico and Central America and Europe.  They started but never finished a huge fort, after laying over 16 million bricks.  We enjoyed spectacular snorkeling and Ben fished,  of course,

Too bad Ben wasn't wearing his Go-Pro camera when he made a Highlight-reel cast one evening from the inflatable.  He caught a smallish snapper and while  reeling it in, a large barracuda spun up and clamped the side of the the snapper in its jaws.  Now Ben reeled carefully, hoping to salvage both his lure and the two fish.   He got his catch up to the dinghy, just about to lean over and get his lure back, when from under the dinghy shot a hammer-head shark who gulped both the fish in a flash.  Jeesh!

We could only stay one night before weather pushed us on to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, off the coast of Cancun.   We had to motor much of the way around the west coast of Cuba, but at least conditions were calm.  Isla Mujeres is a great mix of Mexico and Caribbean Islands, friendly and charming, after jumping through the typical Mexican hoops to check in.  We were scolded for not having fumigation papers, and they could have forced us to get Mexcan fumigation with muy harsh chemicals, but we were pardoned with much warning.  We stayed at Puerto Isla Mujeres, a posh resort/marina but quite inexpensive, and treated ourselves to some pool and swim up bar, laundry and divine outdoor massages (Rachel and Heidi only; the men claim massages hurt).

We left Mexico after 5 days, but heading due south was out of the question.  We made some good easting, however, and when weather for SW Caribbean was reported "truly horrendous" we stopped here at Cayman Islands to wait things out.  Ben took this time to return to Montana to complete a boat engine install he had started last fall, and our sailing weather wasn't due to get much better for a week, so Bill, Heidi and Rachel toughed it out alone in the clear warm water, off the shore of  Rum Point Club, which puts out a decent wifi signal.  

 Ben returned 5 days ago, and we checked out to leave on Friday, but then heard an updated weather that would have us in 25-30 kt winds on the nose for 2-3 days.  Act III could do it, but in the interest of saving the crew, we waited two more days.  We just checked out again, and we hope our next post is from Bocas del Toro, Panama.  Wish us luck this time...we're getting nervous about hurricanes.