The debate continues regarding our route to the Caribbean. Our initial inclination was to continue our travels South (mainly ICW) and then head over to the Bahamas from Miami....to be followed by Turks & Caicos, Puerto Rico and then the Virgin Islands - and just take the winds in our face...the "Thorny Path".

Then there is "Route 65", heading east from Northern Florida until approx. 65 degrees longitude, then head South. Route 66 was not our first choice with just two of us as crew, as this passage would be 7+ days of constant sailing. Our max time off-shore on the Atlantic to date has been 4 days (with 2 crew) and 2.5 days sans crew. Our biggest concern is being caught in unexpected rough weather and being miles & miles from land. And, admittedly, after reading the blog of "Indigo Moon", although I was very much impressed with this sailing couple, I was a little concerned when I read about the rougher aspects of their solo "Route 65" voyage. But then this needed to be weighed against the oncoming roughness of tradewinds if we just head South.

After talking to Chris Parker today, the weather window for the "I-65" passage seems to be opening up later this week and would, if the weather and seas are agreeable, be less arduous and get us there alot faster vs the Thorny Path. Thus we are now seriously considering it.....and prepping for Thursday just in case.

We are happy to be back at Sadler Point Boatyard & Marina - the crew here is fantastic and we are already getting through our final repairs more quickly than expected, despite having arrived just before Thanksgiving.
It is also really great to see George, Nick, Claude and the Sadler Point crew again - it is a little nostalgic as this was the starting point for our big sailing voyage, having spent spent 3+ months here when we bought the boat, fixing it up and outfitting it before heading out.

After our initial day of sleeping off the 52 hr voyage from North Carolina to get here, John and I enjoyed one day off for Thanksgiving (including a lovely Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the fixings prepared in our little galley) and then it has been right back to the grind since then. Each day is filled with attemtpting to tick off as many items from our "To Do" list - John has his list of repairs, I have mine and then we also have "shared" repair tasks. But we did take a lovely evening off to join the gang at the Landing in Jacksonville for the lighting of the tree and the "Light Parade" of boats on the weekend (see pic).

Our "to do" list to prep for our Caribbean voyage is long but distinguished. Having learnt a hard lesson from our attempted Atlantic crossing, we are first and foremost beefing up our spare parts list. Then there is the continual looking at maps, watching the weather and debating the best route for us. Added to this is dealing with US customs, and the "big" provisioning. Finally, there is all the private stuff one needs to sort out - insurance, finances, mail etc. etc.

Stay tuned !!