It's been about 10 days since we last updated so let me start with our trip to Port Lucaya from West End.
We left on 12/11 for the 35 mile jaunt to Freeport at about 8 AM in company with Sojourner (a Tartan 46 with a couple from Chicago that we met at the marina). The day was beautiful, near 80 degrees but of course the wind was on our nose as usual so we motor sailed...making about 8  knots due to a favorable tidal current. About 2 hours into the trip we started having fuel problems...with engine RPM's dropping then coming  back to full...all the symptoms of a clogged fuel filter that we had come to recognize.  When the engine finally quit about an hour later, Sojourner kindly stood by while I went below to wrestle with the filters again in the 3-4 ft seas. I wasn't particularly concerned since we had plenty of sea room (unlike the Intracoastal) and we'd been through this before. Unfortunately, after I'd completed the change of filters I noticed that no fuel was getting to them from our pump which we had replaced only a month ago. I had no spare pump so right away I knew the rest of the day would not be going so well. We elected to sail on to the Bell Channel which would give us entrance to Port Lucaya and then call for a tow into the channel. Unfortunately the wind and tide gods had turned against us and despite several long tacks out into the very rough Gulf Stream, (great sailing that we would have loved at some other time!), we still had not fetched the channel entrance by late afternoon so we got close to land off Freeport and called for the tow a bit early. SeaTow came out and give us a friendly hand and an hour later we were tied up at the dock of the Port Lucaya Marina with Sojourner's help in arranging the tow and catching our lines at the dock. Cruisers here are really helpful! 
Anyway...we were safe and sound in this beautiful spot and in time to meet Chris' plane flight on the 12th. The Port Lucaya marketplace, beach and hotels are all at our disposal and the Christmas decorations are spectacular! See www.ourlucaya.com for some pictures of the sights around us. 
To make our day complete, I discovered that my laptop had slid off it's perch in the Gulf Stream and now had a broken LCD screen...aaaargh....now you know why there haven't been any updates recently! 

Over the next couple of days we got the engine repaired and the laptop sent off to the Man-Machine Inc. in Maryland for repair, met Chris at the airport and settled in to enjoy Port Lucaya while we awaited daughter Noelle's arrival on the 19th. I must take a few moments to commend some of the folks here and recommend their services to other cruisers. Charleton Knowles at Running Mon Marina came over to repair the engine and diagnosed the problem as a fuel pump failure. He had us back up and running in a couple of hours and I now have a spare heavy duty fuel pump.  Prices were reasonable and he is a very nice and interesting fellow.
I also must commend Man-Machine Inc. and Jon Hardesty there for my laptop repair. I shipped it out on Thursday and it was returned like new on Tuesday!! (The local UPS service was terrible however and it sat there until Friday despite daily assurances of delivery... I guess that's island time mon!). Finally, the folks here at the marina have been most helpful with UPS and also with free daily rides to food stores, post office etc. ....most friendly and accommodating.

In addition to hitting the restaurants, resort facilities and shopping here in the Freeport area, we also took our dinghy up about 5 miles into the Lucayan waterway system several times to a pristine beach which stretches for miles and is almost totally deserted. We snorkeled and found lots of sand dollars, starfish and some shells while enjoying the warm waters and temperatures in the 80's (unseasonably warm).