Monday April 10th. I wait over 4 hours to get the rental car, and just barely get to the airport in time for John's flight. The trip back is very smooth though and we are off the dock at 5PM, just ahead of a rain shower. We are not the smoothest getting off the dock as the wind is pinning us against it, but we do get out and away we go. We have decided to take a southern route to Florida to avoid some steep waves and winds from the East. We will travel through the old Bahama channel and right past Haiti and Cuba. Our trip starts out with a whale sighting and some dolphins. Always a nice way to start. 9.5hrs on Port Engine, and 7172 on Generator at start. They were very fair on what they charged me for the stay. Nice people, sort of dirty marina.

Tuesday 11
We mainly motored, switched to only port engine as I did not like sound of Starboard one. Seemed like it still had a high pitched whine. I decided to write the Moorings guys about it, but I know this will not likely matter much. John and I enjoyed the easy pace and sat around on the bows for some glamor shots. The cabin is very smooth and an easy place to hang out in. Started sailing around 8PM. By 10PM winds were at 18Knts off the beam and it was a sloppy ride, but we were doing 8-9 knots.

Wednesday 12
Got a good day of sailing in strong winds allow good boat speed. Seems like this cleaned off bottom as our speed is much better in light air the next days. John is doing great and makes the trip very enjoyable. We had one scare overnight as the batteries quickly went dead as John was on watch around 4AM. Just 8 hours after we shut the engines down so we know we need to charge every 6 hours or so. It was a hard shutdown, with the instruments and autopilot all going down, lucky for us John was watching things and was on the helm when things failed. One more wake shot from the 12th. These are more fun when you are on the boat, the photos do not do them justice (or maybe I am easily amused, or both).. Saw two dolphins as we ate dinner, which is always fun! Had a 169 NM 24 hour run for the day

Thursday 13 Chris says to slow down, so we sail in a light breeze all day.  Getting 3 or 4 knots out of 6 to 7 knots of wind.  It is fun to see the wake the stern makes when the boat is moving well. We compose our emails and hope for a signal as we pass close to Matthew town. We are not disappointed as we get a nice burst of email and can send things out around 11PM. We cover 152 NM in the 24 hours evne with the "slow down" approach.

Friday, 14 The wind continues to be solid in the morning, and we make good time. It goes lighter in the day and comes forward so we have to motor some to fech the next way point. We take it slow , but need to charge anyway. I had some trouble with things locking up when I was reefing the main overnight and when I poked around the boom I figured out two things: There is a little shock cord that is used to hold up the jammers, and the more dangerous discovery was the main boom goose neck bolt was backing out and could have let the boom free. My largest socket fit the bolt and I got things back tight. We are getting towards the entrance to the Bahamas Channel where we expect to see more shipping traffic.  We cover 120 NM in the 24 Hours, as the crow flies, we covered a little more ground as we had to go  around Great Iguana.

Saturday 15  We are plugging along in a good breeze all day 20 to 30 from the East. We see good boat speed without pushing it much as we navigate the old Bahamas Channel off of Cuba. The nav station is working well and I feel like the boat is doing pretty well overall in modestly rough conditions and the dingy rides well. One wave splashed into the open cabin door which got my attentions. Wind builds some in the evening, seeing over  35 knots in the squalls. Boat rides it well with just part of the genoa rolled out. Was seeing boat speed of 10.6 knots before I rolled in more genoa. We cover 168 NM for the 24 hours

Sunday 16 We sail pretty fast all day in a nice breeze and get to the edge of the gulf stream around 6 at night, steady 25-30 knot winds.  The team is doing well but it is a little spooky as we can not tell where everyone is going since we don't have AIS and ships are either skirting the stream, or they are riding the middle for a boost. We are solidly in the stream by midnight.

Monday 17 We are rocking with a nice breeze and a big Gulf Stream assist. We set a 24 hour personal best of 212 NM from 5PM Sunday to 5PM Monday. Even as the winds get lighter, we stay over 9 knots most of the time. East winds 10-15 most of the morning.  Many great shots of good boat speed, on an easy day. By noon the winds have died down and we are mostly motoring. We have pumped fuel to port tank which has overflowed, so I know it is full! We will use that the rest of the way.

Tuesday 18 The day dawns in light air and motoring, so I take down and fold the Genoa. Amazing the change 24 hours brings as yesterday morning it was very rough, and now it is smooth. We motor towards the end of this epic voyage with a smile on our faces.  We get in around 11am, just make the bridge and tie up at the boat yard. The docking did not go perfect as there was a current I was not taking into account and my approach tactics were bad given this current. Live and learn.  We got the main down and took the moorings logos off the sail and discovered a few of the battens had been damaged. John and I get the main off the boom and folded which was fun as it is a huge, heavy sail. Generally got all the two man jobs done.
I dropped a pin at 5PM each day and you can see them on this image. There are a couple of "turn pins" at the end and a few pins from before the passage, but you get the idea of the distances per day.

Wednesday, John leaves on a uber... Lots of good work was done, the highlights were changing the oil in all three engines. I learned if I jam the large pipe into the Yanmars oil dipstick pipe so it blocks the top, I can get 2 more quarts out. Works great. I change the engine oil in both engines plus the generator. Have 34 hours on Port and around 10 on Starboard. I do not change the filters as they are supposed to be new, and I do not have spares.

Thursday, April 20th
 I head off the boat and visit Mary.
We end trip with 1,485NM on log (from GPS), Gen hrs at 7189 (87 from us for the season). Port Engine 34 hrs and Star 10 or so.

  Boat is to be hauled April 24th.