We have seen the boys off.  They are travelling to England via Puerto Rico and Miami. I won’t publish this until after we hear they have arrived because one of them has an incomplete passport which didn’t bother the UK authorities letting him out but much bothered the US authorities on the basis that a missing page in a passport could indicate that you are trying to hide where you have been – however for $600 they could give him a waiver! Does that sound right? He couldn’t accept that so they gave him a parole – forever in his passport not letting him back into the US.  As he has to transit Puerto Rico and Miami again to take his flight back to UK, we wait with bated breath.   Do not put your passport through the wash is the moral of this story even though it may look legible.  Having said that Leila got hers drenched in the Far East somewhere and she had to use the passport for a further year and it got her through – however, no pages missing. If yo read this he got through.

6 May 2010

Election day and Leila has voted for us by proxy which we prearranged.

The wind has been fairly strong with squalls for the previous 4 days.  Fortunately the grib files which we download, now indicate benign weather with a nice high over mid Atlantic. Our next hop is 3 to 4 days non-stop, just me and Bill. We will head for Great Inagua which is the southernmost of the Bahamas.  We read someone’s blog which said the Little Inagua (uninhabited) is sometimes used as a staging post for traffickers and you might just be unlucky enough to witness something they don’t want you to. 

We fancy trying to spend a night in Hogsty Reef one of three true atolls in the Atlantic.  We will sail past it and take a view. 

Our friends Bert and Marlene are on their way to Rum Cay.  We will have to check the charts because the depths are so low and we may be limited.  It is weird to look at a chart which shows 2000m and the very next contour line is 3m or less.  There are passages through but we need 3m.  We hope to catch up with them somewhere soon.

So some downwind sailing coming up which will bring back rolly memories of the Atlantic crossing.  Have done some shopping and the washing, the para anchor has been taken out and dried and the gas has been replenished without any problems whatsoever – even taken and delivered.  We have propane in the propane tank and butane in the emergency butane tank.  How different from Europe where we had such difficulties getting propane gas.  Here the guy will go off and fill your gas bottles whereas in Europe they prefer to swap bottles.  Health & Safety Law no doubt.