Hi folks,

I want to thank my friends and family for coming to the Bon Voyage party. We held it Moores Stonecrab Restaurant because over the years I have often called it the international Port of Moores. I often cleared in from international trips at their dock.

We enjoyed a stiff head wind sailing south from Longboat. We got out by 9;00 sailed through the evening and into the next day when we decided to duck unto the shark river mouth at the N. end of Cape Sable. We anchored up in time to enjoy a fine cocktail. On the 15th of July our start date we made half a tank of water, It gave us plenty for hot showers in Shark River.

During the trip we had a chance to test out many things including my home made wind vane (wind powered autopilot) To my great relief it worked the way it is supposed to. Third one on this boat It does take neurotic persistence to get things to all come together.

We had a chance to reef the sails and get the windshield up as a local 30 knot storm swept down on us. I set the "THE CUTWATER" up to reef from the cockpit so it only takes a few minutes to get done.

The kids did great. Gillan seems to like the heavy weather. Matthew slept more than normal. We had a fine fresh fish caught after our going away party at Moores which we ate in Shark river.

We got up early fri and sailed out the Shark River mouth and anchored up at about 4 PM in the mangroves in Marathon. Here in Marathon they now charge $13.85 a day for the dingy dock after they run your ID through "the system".