Whew! A couple of long days sailing to get here but we arrived last evening at Chub Cay. We had great winds for sailing through except that the winds died to almost nothing on the way across the gulf stream. We crossed the Great Bahama Banks yesterday with winds out of the NNW at around 15 knots and 3 foot seas on a beam reach. (for my sailing friends) The only slight negative point in the whole trip so far was the anchorage the first night at South Riding Rock - rolly and a bit rough. Not a lot of rest that night for the crew and that makes for grumpyness (if a word) the next morning. We finally perked up after a couple of naps and got a good night's rest last night. Darrell's notes: We sailed about 150 miles on about 10 gallons of diesel, the wind made our electricity, so we are being green as we can be.

Will continue to update as we go. We intend to take more time to stop and smell the roses this time around.

Thursday morning left Key Largo for a sail. Perhaps Bahamas bound. We will see what the Gulf Stream has for us with 15 kts of North wind. Prediction is for it to come down to 10-15 later. This is the maiden sail with the new genoa. A beautiful morning I might add. We had a great farewell dinner with some wonderful friends last night. Stay tuned for updates, hopefully from Chub Cay if all goes well.
Alibi Crew clear

Wow! Just a little over a month since the last post - not bad for the unemployed - right? We have sold the dive business and are busy preparing the sail boat for the first "cruise" of many, we hope!!

So many things have been going on, I have to stop and think what we need to write about. In mid-December, we hauled the boat out in the boat yard to take advantage of our friend Capt. Al's expertise. There she remained while we went to Texas for Christmas and we got her back in the water just before New Year's. Projects completed since then include: New bottom paint, new Navy Blue Boot Stripe, new gold pin striping up top, complete polish and wax of the hull (a six step procedure), new cutless bearing, almost re-made rudder. The biggest hold-up on the work getting completed in the boatyard was the rudder - she had some blisters when we bought her and we wanted to get those fixed. After over a week of letting the rudder dry and assisting with heat lamps, there was still moisture behind the fiberglass. We stripped it naked and let it dry as much as possible before re fiberglassing it with some moisture still in there - we don't know how long it would have taken to completely dry out!!!! Anyway we splashed her with 3 days of 2010 left and have not stopped working on her yet. We are completely redoing the teak while we have electricity here at Key Largo Harbor Marina. HOPEFULLY, this is the last time we will have to take it down to bare wood for the next few years - lesson to self - put plenty of coats on the first time and take care of "dings" as soon as they happen. She will be beautiful when we are done!!

The other reason we have not left for parts unknown is that we have some "year end" things to tie up before we leave the country. Yes, we intend to be gone as soon as all the pieces and parts get taken care of - destination Bahamas. Departure date unknown. Stay tuned here and you will learn of our whereabouts.

While we are still close to the house, we have moved KC (pronounced Casey) the Kitty Cat on board. This is a trial run for all of us that we just did last night. So far, KC has done pretty well. Roxy isn't happy having to share her bed, boat, and us with anyone. Biggest hurdle is getting her used to indoor living (ie cat box) and then transitioning from that to her using the head for her duties. Darrell has renamed the boat Noah's Ark!! LOL

While here at the marina, we have made some new friends and gotten to know some "old" ones better. We are parked next to some people from Connecticut that we met last year when he did his open water dive certification at Island Ventures. They are some great people and we hope to get to see them many more times in our future travels.