Friday, 26 June. No one who hasn't done it can really appreciate the beauty of blue water sailing and difference between coasting and blue water. When you are far from land, there is nothing to hit except ships which are easy to detect even at night with either with AIS or radar and usually you can see them miles off and call them if they appear to be on a course that will bring them too close. The winds are far more consistent and the waves tend to spread out and become swells instead of chop. You rarely need to touch the sails except to 'tweak' them for the fun of it as you will be on the same tack for hours (if not days) at a time. After the first day, you fall into the rhythm of the sea and adjust to the four hour watch schedule. The nights are magical, the stars like you have never seen - so far from any light pollution. The days are lazy with nothing particular to do and people taking turns sleeping or napping to catch up on sleep missed on watch. I will lay on the tramp which amplifies the gentle rise and fall of the boat. A pillow under my head against the deck and I could spend hours looking up at the sails and the sky. We made landfall in Jamaica Wednesday evening when just before sunset, her majestic Blue Mountain came into view above the coastal clouds and the setting sun. We were still many miles from Jamaica and about 12 hours from Port Royal, our destination, but the blue water part of the voyage was over and we had to start checking course more frequently, watching for little fishing boats which don't show up on radar or AIS and generally sharpening our senses and alertness. As we rounded Morant Point, about midnight, we entered the world of Jamaican fishermen. Tiny skiffs many miles from shore either totally invisible in the darkness or light by some random source - a flash light, running lights (while not moving), no real anchor light. And the shore was light with the signs of cities - thousands of lights from houses, streets, moving traffic, etc. I swear Jamaicans must love red and green lights as we saw more of these than you can imagine. Each time I would think that it was some type of aid to navigation (of which there were none until we reached Port Royal) only to realize that the light was located half way up the mountain, not on some tower by the shore. With the wind slowly dying, reduced by the night breeze falling down from the mountains that opposes the trade winds and cancels them out, our speed dropped which worked out nicely to put us arriving in Port Royal about 8:00 AM. As we entered Port Royal, I hailed the Coast Guard and announced our arrival, indicating that we had reservations at Morgan's Harbor Marina and that they had told us to come to the dock and clear in there rather than anchoring off to clear in before going to the dock. The CG replied that this was acceptable. We could not raise Carlos (the same Carlos who had helped us five years ago when we stopped for fuel during the initial delivery to Belize) on VHF (turns out he had no radio), but Deb called him on the sat phone and he said come into the dock starboard side to. As we approached, it looked VERY tight between two sport fishers that were med moored ass end to the dock. Using twin engines and throwing dock lines as far as possible, we wiggled in without hitting anything. Just as we finished tying up, the Immigration & Customs officers arrived. The Customs man was reasonable, but the Immigration man insisted that we had to get off the dock and anchor out until we were given "pratique" by the Quarantine officer. We tried to reason with him and assured him we would not step onto the dock, etc., but he was firm in his resolve, so we cast off and wiggled back out anchoring off in 40' of water to wait for Quarantine. And wait. And wait. About two hours later he arrived, filled out all the paperwork and granted pratique, allowing us to drop the 'Q' flag, raise the Jamaican courtesy flag and reapproach the dock. This time, the dock master had moved one of the sport fishers a bit and we slid in much more easily. Tied up, we were visited by Customs and Immigration ( a different and more reasonable official). Only the customs man wanted to "search" the boat and I think he kindly turned his head to not see the many plants (not allowed) that we had squirreled way in the heads. Once officially cleared in to the country, I went to the office and paid our dockage - only $1.00/ft., half what it was in Nassau. We decided to provision that PM instead of waiting for Dave & Lisa to arrive and do it today. This turned out to be a great idea and they have been delayed and will not arrive until about noon today. We will be ready to clear out and leave as soon as they arrive. Provisioning was interesting. Cheap rum, two cases of Red Stripe, so-so produce, cheap spices in plastic baggies, no frozen anything, great coffee (Blue Mountain coffee is reputed to be the best - and most expensive - in the world). The total came to $14,000. Jamaican. Exchange rate is 84:1, so actually it was not too bad. Particularly good was a fruit we got from a roadside vendor that was a cross between an apple and a pear - tasted exactly like that and was great! Returning to the marina, we stored all the provisions, went for a swim at the pool, and used the hotel's internet. We ate at the marina and made an early night of it to catch up on lost sleep before leaving for more blue water sailing today. Dave & Lisa are due to arrive in a couple hours and then we are off. The SSB is on th blink - receives, but will not tune properly to transmit data (OK for voice) so we may not be able to update the blog until we reach Panama. We have the sat phone for weather and emergencies.