Getting ready........

Well, we are getting closer and closer to being ready to take our first big cruise south.

We got a new toilet in the master head (yippee), we've run new wiring for surveillance cameras (two on the stern, seeing the back deck and the dinghy) (one infra red in the engine room), we've added a new Garmin 3-D Chartplotter that is touchscreen and oh so slick to operate which incorporates the view of the cameras, a new dome radar, and a new VHF/AIS radio. We are having the watermaker services, we've had the liferaft serviced and recertified, Ed has changed all the oil and put new filters on the 3 generators and the main Cummins engine and we're putting up new punched tin ceilings in all three heads and in the galley which will really brighten things up.

We've started provisioning and we will hopefully start around the 3rd week of April. We will depart Sarasota, head south to Key West, spend the night there (because we love Key West), then cruise on to the Bahamas, hit Nassau, on down to the Great Exumas, Rum Cay, Great Inaguas, and Turks and Caicos. It is there we hope to pick up Emma so she can cruise with us from there. (she graduates in May) From there we will cruise to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. (St. Thomas, St John, St. Croix, etc.) From there we will go on to St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia, Georgetown and The Grendadines and on to Grenada. It is from there we will head on to Trinidad and Tobago. We've talked with a shipyard in Trinidad already about reserving a spot to have Great Mates hauled out, new bottom paint and have that thruster we bought last year installed. I won't know how to act with a thruster. I'm certain Eds blood pressure will be lowered while I dock with a bow thruster.

"Loco", my cat, is with us. It will be interesting to see how he does cruising. He has his own life jacket but he doesn't think much of it. He walks backwards when it's on trying to get it off I guess.

We plan to be home sometime in June for the summer while Great Mates II is stored on the hard in Trinidad.

There's much to learn but we are anxious to do so.

Blessing and Peace to all!