We had a mad last day (Tuesday 20th) in St Augustine. Mark and Skip finalized engines, electrical and whatever else needed doing. Skip kindly donated his last day of labour to the cause....thanks to the Tennessee stud for everything. Oli swobbed decks all day.....brilliantly. It's so nice to get the remnants of the work we have been doing all washed away. I ran around town collecting the last of our required spares and had a quick fair well lunch to St Augustine with Jules.

We motored out of the lift bridge at 6.30pm, leaving Oli on he the dock with his surf board in hand and a smile on his face. He was off to a last fair well to his surfing buddy Jen. Mark and I anchored just 50m from the old Spanish Fort for the night and dined on a Jules curry. Oli was back on board by eleven.....still smiling.

The night was calm except for a depth alarm going off at 1am. We didn't have an issues with the shallow waters, just that the setting on the alarm was set too fine. It did impinge my sleep thou. It mad me think of all the little thing that could go wrong on the three day passage to the Bahamas....and the 12 month passage to Australia.

It's funny to think however that this will be one of our most challenging crossing until be hit the pacific. The winds are not favorable and most other island hops will be under 24hrs....many will be pleasant day sails.

Wed 20th - Mark, Oli and I got up with the sun at 7am. We weighed anchor and against the tide motored out of the river into the big wide world.

Within an hour we had our sails set for 200nm trip south down the Florida coast.

As an aside, we got our clearance papers to depart the USA for the Jacksonville ports authority. We paid $19 and showed the ships papers. No one wanted our passports. So here we a sailing out of the US without being stamped out....and we were told this is normal?

We expected 10 to 20 knots from the east, but got 25 from the south east....the exact direction we a heading. We had to reef the main within the first hour of sailing. The next two hours where a roller coaster ride. With speed over 10knots and we tacked every hour to avoid the beach to the west and a whale migratory no go zone to the east. Our SSB mount didn't like it and gave way within the first hour. We saved the antenna but......who makes this stuff. It's purpose was to carry an antennae on a boat.

It's now 5pm and we have made it 35nm....great speed but the tacking is slowing us down. We a now about to spend our first night at sea. Winds are now 15knots and they will lighten over night. The tacking will continue. Both dolphins and turtles have paid us visits along the way

Oli is on the helm and loving it. Mark has a line out the back and a book in hand, Jules is so chilled out she may be dead.....for a first time sailer she is amazing. No sickness no complaints. I'm about to feed the crew.

I took the first watch from 8pm until 1am. The boat didn't go a under 6 knots. I tacked longer crossing the northern right whales zone. It's no issue to do this however weather reports also request we report injured whales.....so I didn't want to injure one of them or they, us.

Daytona was lit up like a cheap Christmas tree as we sailed past. So I tacked out to sea. We have all now learnt to tack Ooroo unassisted. My first night tack went like a dream but the second required a wake up call to Mark to assist in untangling the sheets from the mast winch. This is a design fault, but we are learning to work with it now.

While I slept through the first 5hrs of The 21st, Mark had the watch. The winds had dropped and was uneventful. Oli was on when I woke at 6.30. Still dark he was in his element and was taking Ooroo further from land.....the stars are better there.

We have now been sailing for 24hrs and am only 60nm....40 behind schedule. The wind is at 10 knots and the engines are now humming away.

One of my favorite sayings is "If you have a plan, something can go wrong". That worked for me over the past few years. In sailing it's more like "if you have a plan, change it, change it and change it again until it goes right".

Cape Canaveral is dead ahead. We can see the launching pads. Short of any rocket launches today it looks to be a light and sunny motor sail....south.

Now 10hrs latter as we rest the engines and as the sun sets we discussed the lack of boat traffic....even when we cruised 1nm into the restricted waters of the Kennedy Pace Centre we saw no dark security vessels. And then three huge cruise ships in convoy passed us within 500 meters. They weren't flagged nor brandishing any exotic ships names. It was Jules on the binoculars that saw written on the side was "Church of Scientology". Now folks, that's more than 6000 people heading our way. What was I saying about having plans?

Dolphins played on our bow at sunset. Oli got some nice shots.

It's now 1.30am Friday morning and what do I see...but two of the ships that passed us earlier. They are anchored about 20nm off shore. Secrete Scientology business I guess. Tapping into the power of the Gulf Stream. Time for a cuppa.

I woke at 7.30am to dad, dad, dad, dad. Its not a nice way to wake....panic was in Oli's voice. I'm thinking, collision, fire, whatever. It was Tuna. Sashimi quality. It was breakfast.

After the catch the wind changed further SE and we could sail again. Under sail we are doing 6knots. The engines only give us 4.

We expect the wind to change to the south but I'm not getting to excited....however we are now just 6 hours from our turn to the east and the Bahamas. Only 6 hrs behind the first schedule. Then we would love a southern breeze.

We sighted more dolphins and turtles. Pleasure craft of immense value started appearing as we approached Palm Beach. We sailed past divers, fishermen. Charter boats and major container ships.

Saturday 24th - Oli woke me at 3am for my watch. We are only three hours from our destination...West End, Grand Bahama Island. The crossing started at 6pm. We left the opulent Palm Beach behind with the setting sun and within 30 minutes hit the gulf stream. I had the helm and played with the forces of wind, current and engines to maintain our bearing. Marks watch was much the same starting from 9pm. We lost some wind then and motored on. The current quickly lessened. We had crossed he stream in hours. Oli stayed on deck with me so we could hoist full sails for my watch. We are now going 7knots with lights clearly visible at our destination. It's so good having Mark and Oli on board. Natural sailers. Oli for someone who has never sailed has taken to it so easily. Setting sails to perfection and remembering the small stuff.....he babies the sails and the engines. Two captains and two admirals in his blood is showing dividends. Mark is quick to recognize any issue and fixes it almost by reflex. I can learn lots here.

The wind was so good we arrived outside the Harbour and hour early. I have de-powered the sail and am letting Mark get and extra half hours kip before we enter on the rising sun. I even have time for a spell check. I bet I still get it very wrong.

It smells like camp fires. This is the first sense that we are indeed in a different country.

We pulled into customs at 7 and refueled Ooroo all before 8. Such an easy process. We are now flying the Bahamas flag next to the Aussie and Pom one. I'm finishing this blog on the beach 20m from Ooroo's berth. Jules, next to me is on the iPad doing office work in via Noosa. It certainly piled up after 84hrs on board. Oli and Mark have gone spear fishing in the dingy at an adjacent Cay. Very surreal.