After a beautiful two night stay at the remote island of Mayaguana in the Far Bahamas, we are off to Puerto Rico.

We were told that there was "nothing there" at Mayaguana. Yep. 80 degree days/70 degree nights, crystal clear water, flocks of flamingos, coral reefs, shelling, and a supper's worth of conch under our boat just for grabs...nothing there.

It appears that we have three days of settled weather to go against the trade winds. Our course is to stay at 22 degrees north and head due east for 300 miles. At that point we should be able to turn south and head to the southwest tip of Puerto Rico. We should make land in Boqueron sometime Friday.

The relentlessness of the trade winds has to be experienced to be believed. Heading east from the Bahamas takes a "window". At this point, it appears we have one.

It will require far more motoring than sailing for the 300 miles east. Once we turn south, the prevailing easterly trades at 20-25 knots will be more than enough to sail into Puerto Rico.

This will be our longest offshore passage. Today has been an easy day. Tonight and tomorrow promises to be similar but you never know.

Meyka and I have a very loose watch schedule during the day. I probably spend most of the day at the helm but Meyka is ready and able to spell me when asked. The autopilot (when it works) does most of the real work. I just have to supervise and adjust as needed.

I typically take the first watch from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Meyka takes from 1:00 a.m. until I wake up. I'm usually up for Chris Parker's weather on the HAM radio at 6:30.

We had a difficult passage on the way down to Mayaguana and needed two days rest before resuming our trip.

As we journey over the next five days, I'll try to give a daily blog post. It can go from mild to wild in a heartbeat. Let's hope it doesn't!