We left Aruba yesterday after clearing out of Customs and Immigrations. We have been working on preparation for several weeks and we are now underway. We plan to arrive at Matthew Town in the Bahamas on Saturday spending about 2-1/2 weeks anchoring a lot. Then we go to Stuart to visit family. Finally we plan to go offshore to Morehead City, from there we take the ICW to the Chesapeake Bay. We are very much looking forward to having the boat 15 minutes from the house �- another first.

I am always surprised at how much wear and tear happens on a boat in storage. The main winches had both frozen up and the chartplotter is not working as designed. It all seemed to start with the automatic software and firmware updates that came during March. The touch screen remains locked, the fishfinder can�'t find the transducer and the old chartplotter I was using for GPS input can�'t find satellites. We are living with the non-touch screen, I will be relying on our old depth sounder, and I attached the VHF radio for the GPS inputs.so the chartplotter is keeping our position on the charts and helping with navigation.

Most of yesterday we were moving in the right direction at or greater than hull speed. This was with 2 reefs in the main, the jib and no mizzen. We hit a new 24 hour record for Neverland by covering 159NM from when we left the customs dock. The trade winds are great to sail in although they create a lot of wind chop. The chop is very similar to the short square wave we find in the bay, only bigger. Monica is starting to get over the sea sickness she suffers at the beginning of each voyage.

The wind has come down to around 15 kn so we are both able to relax more. The forecast looks like it will pick up again this afternoon and tonight.