It is two days before we travel to Venezuela. We have been looking forward to this trip for several months and hoping that we would have all of the boat updates and project complete before leaving the islands that we have come to know so well. It was becoming clear that this was not to be.

Our board rack was ordered so late in the game that it was amazing Technick could produce it in time at all. We certainly would not have time to install it. Nick brought it by today and it is perfect. Johnny Sails has been a no show, which is getting concerning since we gave him a fairly large deposit.

Hideko had worked very hard yesterday cleaning up the boat. Bret and Ian did a great job cleaning up after all of the glass work but with so much stuff going on in the boat you just end up with a lot of things un-stowed and a lot of stuff that needs to be cleaned up. I was of course off sailing in the regatta (a slight imbalance in spousal fun factor).

We spent the day today cleaning the boat some more and wrapping up projects. All of the rope clutches got labeled and all of the lines got hot knifed and whipped. All of the decks got swabbed and all of the tools got put away. We also got out logs ready for the trip to Los Testigos, set up our routes and all of that.

At the end of the day I felt like we were finally going into the next phase of our travels. Phase I had been moving aboard and sailing around in Florida. Just getting used to living on the boat was a big adjustment. Phase II had been the Bahamas and TCI. Close to the US and filled with American and Canadian yachts but still out in the world of beautiful islands. Phase III was the Dominican Republic, our fist time sailing in the third world with immersion in a foreign language. Phase IV was the eastern Caribbean. While each is unique, the Virgins through Grenada are all fairly similar in the big picture; small island nations with basic services and close proximity through Coast Guard, Airlines and tourism with the western world. Sailing through Venezuela with a US flagged vessel would be a new experience.