Hello families and friends, Well, we thought we had arrived, but there was one more adventure left! We delivered the great San Juan boat one leg further to the beautiful island of Virgin Gorda. What a gorgeous trip, calmer seas and interesting islands. We picked up the owner and his family, after customs and immigration again, and headed over to Tortola, where we stuffed our gear in our bags and headed to the Tortola airport in a taxi. There a Bell helicopter was waiting to take us back to San Juan Puerto Rico airport. It was great to see the islands [View Full Entry]

---

---

12/16/06 Thursday we had some fun watching a 130’ French steel schooner maneuver her way oh so carefully through the surge and swells into Ocean World. She draws 12 ft and the marina entrance is 12 ft at high tide, so she anchored out until they could get in. It was quite a sight. Man of Steel also came in, having come from the Exumas, and Grand Turk Island. A note on the surge at the marina - we chafed partway through two lines while waiting for the fuel truck to arrive at Ocean World….. The staff at the marina, and [View Full Entry]

---

---

12/18/06 We left San Juan harbor at 0900, having enjoyed being in the United States again, flying our Puerto Rican courtesy flag. Our beautiful San Juan filly, with all her horsepower, left the harbor and bucked straight into large swells (again). She handles them all very well, but it made for another couple of uncomfortable hours. Encountered our first lobster pots, or whatever they were, in one section, and suddenly realized that we missed the flying fish that had accompanied us so many miles of our journey. We continued east to Pasaje de San Juan, itching to go visit Isla Palominos [View Full Entry]

---

---

Update for 12/13-12/15/06 Paul and I left the Caicos Marina & Boatyard at 0945 on Wednday, 12/13. After breakfast and Mark’s great coffee, Libby and Mark’s bags were loaded into the pink-mobile (definitely NOT a Cadillac), and we had our hugs and good-byes with a few tears mixed in. We’re definitely missing our friends! Our leg across the Caicos Bank, took a bit of time with a vigilant watch for coral heads. The Turks Island Passage (or Columbus Passage) presented us with 5-8 ft seas, some 10-12 ft seas, and long rolling swells. In Grand Turks we anchored overnig [View Full Entry]

---

---

Lots of photos and a few changes... Since we have a good internet connection, we are taking advantage and sending all the photos that we have been saving. We have a good connection because we are weather-bound in the Caicos Islands, so weather-bound that Mark and I will be leaving by plane, not boat… It is 75 degrees outside but there are torrential rain squalls and the winds have been in the 20-30 knots region with big seas as this front comes through, so Paul can’t even think of moving the boat until Thursday, which is our day to return to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello families and friends, We are preparing for Captain's dinner, with Mark and Libby's final full day in the Turks and Caicos, British West Indies. What fun we have had, with many adventures. We'll toast you all tonight and hope to see you all soon. Tomorrow we travel.... some east, some west. Will keep you posted on all the latest adventures. Here is a final parting shot of the Banks. [View Full Entry]

---

---

And we do this why…..? When we last left you (or when you last left us), we were pleased as punch that we had crossed the big Florida Strait….hmmmm. We have been traveling quite a bit slower than we had planned, making shorter hops so we haven’t made really good time, but we’ve been having a really good time! Our planned route from Chub Cay was to cross down to Nassau, cross the Exuma Banks, on to the Exuma Sound and over to Cat Island. We got part of it right. The crossing from The Berry Islands (Chub Cay) towards Nassau [View Full Entry]

---

---

We are on our way! It is Saturday night and I am sitting in Chub Cay-temperature is about 75, water is about 73, it is sunset and just gorgeous! I hear that there are some winter weather conditions in the ol’ US of A, but you wouldn’t know that here. But the deal is, you have to pay some dues to get here…. We began with an intriguing trip about 14 miles down the New River, from our dock at the boatyard to our jump off point at Bahia Mar Marina-a skinny little channel leading into the port of Ft. Lauderdale. [View Full Entry]

---

---

I have tried to add two maps to the blog site, one is a picture I took of our overview chart and the other is an advertisement from Rum Cay (pronounced key) marina. We may not be going there, but they have a nice website. Anyway-we are traveling from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. Our tentative itinerary has us leaving Ft. Lauderdale on December 1, crossing the Florida Strait and entering the Great Bahama Bank just north of Bimini. We will cross the bank towards Nassau, clearing customs at the south end of the Berry Islands at [View Full Entry]

---

---

I am going to try to show pictures of the happy travelers and may try to send photos of the house, too, but this is the first try. [View Full Entry]

---

---