Keep to the North to go South - Conception Island to Rum Cay At 1600 hours on April l7, 2007 we dropped anchor off the eastern shore of the beautiful nature reserve area known as Conception Island. Our anchor lay in 20' of crystal clear turquoise water in which we could clearly view every grain of sand on the sea floor. Much to our delight dolphins and tropic birds welcomed us to our anchorage which lay amongst many coral heads. Thanks to Tom's hunting and Carmel's cooking we were able to enjoy a snack of fresh spiny lobster on board Taima that evening as their two cats entertained us with their antics on deck. The next day found us motor-sailing in light winds to Rum Cay. We arrived at l630 hours after a very long and stressful winding entrance through the vast field of coral heads that fill the southern shore anchorage area of the island. It took us 6 and a half hours to make l6 miles progress today. We find ourselves paying strict attention to the advice of Bruce Van Sant's book, "The Gentleman's guide to Passages South", as we head north to go south in our attempt to follow the "thornless path".