We are into the third day of absolutely beautiful sailing weather and yet we wait for the last few items to be shipped and installed before we take Ooroo down the coast of Florida to West Palm Beach and make the crossing of the infamous Gulf Stream to the Bahamas with Mark and Jules on board.

It's Thursday and the weather should hold until Monday. Our plan is to move Ooroo to the outside of the Bridge of Lions, lift bridge on Friday. Anchor overnight and depart very early Saturday morning. Today we get our customs clearance, yesterday we purchased $1000 of provisions and the day before that we topped up fuel and water. Ooroo will never again be heavier than she is right now.

I have had a chance to explore some of Florida with Jules. Jules arrived into Miami on the 5th and we spent a wonderful 3 days in the Art Deco, South Beach area. The wind made beach going unpleasant so we wined and dined non stop. We then drove down to Key West, a town that rivals St Augustine in appeal and equals the West Coast Hwy1 coastal drive. Long bridges, turquoise water and glaringly white beaches verses the rugged cliffs, wild oceans and winding roads of the West. This is a great country for driving. We slowley headed back to northern Florida via the austintacious Palm Beach, the contrsting down trodded West Palm Beach to the Cape Canaveral Space Centre. Then we got mixed up in the traffic created by 10,000 Harley Davidsons converging on Daytona for Bike Week. Needless to say we kept driving through Daytona ending up at a cheap and cheerful beachside motel before heading back to St Augustine to do the finishing touches on Ooroo.

Meanwhile, my lovely daughter turned 18. I have now managed to miss both my kids 18ths due to travel but will more than make up for that with some on board celebrations. Oli will also have his 21st on board in July. As if we need a reason to party