TALISA is safe and sound in her bed at the moment whilst we earn some more cruising dollars :-(

Hi all,

We are in Cuba. It is very interesting indeed.

The people here have very little indeed, but are some of the friendliest people we've met.

It's been a few days since an update, so here we go.

We got past the Bogeyman which was the 120NM of New Jersey coastline. It's a pretty unforgiving trip with very few bail out options and had been preying on our minds a bit. However, in the event the weather was a bit rough, but we made it through to Cape May in New Jersey. Joan was happy because she was concerned about being in charge of the boat while I was asleep below, but in the end it was fine.

Some of the rest of the fleet we have been travelling with went straight on to the Chesapeake, but after 24 hours of relatively tough sailing, including some nasty 10 -12ft following seas, we were glad to put into Cape May and enjoy the comfort of being tied up at a marina. Our intention was to carry on to the Chesapeake the next day, but bad weather meant that we spent the next 2 days at anchor in Cape May just outside the coastguard station.

In the US, the CG is part of the military and it was quite interesting to hear each morning the the recruits at the training academy just 200ft from out boat 'sounding off' and playing the bugle at sundown.

After Cape May, we had to go outside into the Atlantic again to get around the point as out mast at 63ft is too tall to go under the bridge on the Cape May canal.

After that we went up the Delaware Bay which took around 7 hours, it's much bigger than I first thought and has many schoal patches. The main danger here is keeping out of the way of big shipping trying to keep to the narrow channel.

After completing the Delaware, we turned left into the Chesapeake and Delaware canal which will ultimately take us into the Chesapeake Bay, but right now Tropical Depression 16 is combining with the remnants of Hurricane Nicole to put down HUGE amounts of rain and high winds (predicted 50+), so we are taking cover in the Summit North Marina which is halfway through the canal and just about as safe a place as we could get.

Yesterday we tried to make a dash for Cape May, but 12 miles into the 115 mile journey we decided to turn back.

We had 15 / 20 knot winds on the nose gustin to 25 and the residual swells from Hurricane IGOR were combining with the 3 -5 foot seas making it quite unplesant.

I've no doubt we could have carried on (indeed Joan voted to do just that), but it just didn't feel right and usually when you get that feeling it's time to turn round if you still can.

So we are back at the Atlantic Highlands marina on a mooring ball. We planned to anchor out from this point to wait for a weather window, but the anchoring field is getting full of Canadians who seem to be on some kind of flotilla heading South so there's not much room left.

I can't beleive how close some people are prepared to anchor. I like about 150ft of chain out, so that means at least a 220ft swing room, but these guys look to all be within 50 ft or so or each other and don't seem the least concerned. Let's hope they all swing together.

If we don't make another attempt tomorrow, it looks like another week before we might get better weather. Joan is getting really anxious about the overnight trip and just want's to get it over and I must say I'm starting to feel the same.

Still, today we have really nice weather, in the low 90's, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

Actually I do have one thing to complain about, I stood up this morning and put my back out really badly, could hardly stand up at one point. Just hope this is a temporary thing.

Well we made it through Hell Gate (!) and to Manhattan.

After a couple of days at a nice but VERY rolly berth in Hoboken New Jersey we decided to clear out and go South to Sandy Hook to wait of the big swells being created by Hurricane IGOR.

So ... we are moored at the interestingly names Atlantic Highlands at the Yacht club. No idea why it's called the Highlands as there's certainly no 'high land' here. Still, they have place called "Shore Casino" here and there's no gambling allowed there - go figure.

It's a beautiful day, everyone else is out sailing in the bay, but we've spent the whole day on the boat just having a Sunday chill out. I figure that we get plenty sailing time just moving the boat southwards.

Nextr stop is an overnight passage from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Joan isn't looking forwards to this, but does just want to get it over. Looks like the weather won't be the best after IGOR blows past, but at least we should have