Sorry about the long time between updates, more about what we have been doing after a passage recap. We made it into our old slip here at North Palm Beach Marina on 5/19/12 at 0330 (read 3:30 am) after powering the last 63.7 hours (2 days 15 hours & 36 min.). Thanks to our venerable nearly thirty year old Perkins diesel we made it only bumping once when I steered us on the wrong side of an ICW daymarker that I didn't see. I'll blame fatigue for it as I had had scarcely three hours sleep in the last 24 hours. Irregardless we made it to the marina where we were greeted by fellow live aboards Ron and Barbara who caught our dock lines as we pulled into the slip. Pam had called Barbara via our satphone earlier in the day to get a weather report so we could be prepared for what we might face. At that time it we knew that we were going to arrive after midnight. Even knowing that Barbara told Pam to call her no matter what time we got in and she would be out there to help us tie up the boat. Pam called Barbara as we approached the marina entrance and it was like coming home to see her and Ron standing on our dock as we approached it. Pam and I were both pretty tired as we had pushed ourselves mentally during the passage to keep going even though the cold/flu that we had was hurting us physically. It was truely a relief to pull into that slip after a thankfully uneventful Gulf Stream crossing as the wind hadn't been above six knots all day so the Stream was like glass. However, during the crossing I was entertained all night by a lightning show first over Grand Bahama Island and then north of us over the Gulf Stream. At times the clouds were lit up as if it were daytime by the once again silent cloud to cloud lightning. On the one hand it was a truely awesome to watch but at the same time I was thankful that we were not further north. As on the preious night we had a lot of shipping traffic which kept us busy watching the AIS on the laptop. This passage was 1232 nautical miles which we covered in 9 days 18 hours and 46 minutes at an average speed of 5.45 knots. I attribute this lackluster performance primarily to the light winds and the need to motor so much. We haven't re-fueled yet so I don't know how much diesel fuel we used but I am estimating it is around 57 of of our 76 gallon capacity. One thing I can say for sure is that it would have been a better memory if we had felt better physically.

Since arriving back in Florida, despite not feeling well, we have been re-connecting our ties to land. One of our highest priorities was to get an air conditioner so that we could put a stop to the mold that had accumulated on all interior surfaces of our closed up boat during the passage. Additionally, AC is necessary at this time of year in Florida. While living aboard here in Florida for ten years we had had good luck with a Cruise 'n Carry air conditioner which sets in an open hatch. We install it in the centrally located galley hatch. After getting the part number from the West Marine website I called the local store where we found that they had one in stock. Ron gave me a ride to the store to pick up the unit on the afternoon of Saturday May 19th. The next thing on our list was to get wheels. I did some researched the local Honda dealers for vehicle availability. Our plan was to rent a car on Monday so that we could run around to the three local Honda dealers. When Pam talked to Barbara the subject of our renting a car came up and Barbara said, "save your money I'll take you to as many dealers as necessary and I'll bring a book and wait for you." Barbara is a truely a giving person and a great friend, thank you so much. Anyway, on Monday we only had to go to one dealer to get a decent deal and now we have wheels. Still recovering from the passage and illness we have been doing other things as our energy permits so progress has been slow. Now a little over three weeks later we have re-connected with friends and made progress on our "to do list". We the most important thing is that, right now, we feel as though we have made the right decision to return to our live aboard life here in Florida. Will we be able to sail more than we did in the Caribbean??? Time will tell.