Date: Tuesday 27^th May 2014.

My plan was to sail from The Bahamas directly to Norfolk, Virginia, USA.  Eileen never intended to make this journey and she had already left Nassau to return to the UK.  My brother, Bob, had booked a flight out from Australia to join me for the trip and I was looking forward to seeing him again after the long time that has elapsed since we had last got together.  Unfortunately he picked up a bug which failed to get better in time and was unable to fly. 

Jim, who had previously sailed from Puerto Rico to The Turks & Caicos Islands with Eileen and I in early April, had also made plans to make the trip with me so it was just the two of us that left Nassau on Tuesday afternoon.  In fact Jim’s feet hardly touched the ground.  His flight arrived at around midday, he was on the boat about 90 minutes later and by 2:45 in the afternoon we were on our way.

We left Nassau via the western channel and as we got a couple of miles offshore, the breeze filled in and we had a splendid sail northwards.