November 26, 2004 (Jacomien – aka Loonie writes ….. ) 

Michael and I land at Beef Island Airport in the BVI at about 3:30 pm – it is Friday. It had been arranged that we would rent the car for the 24 hours we expected to be in Tortola . We have arrived minus one bag, we think it contains my clothes, some food goodies and our foul weather gear. Hertz are expecting us – we arrive at their counter to be met with a very friendly …… “Hello – are you Michael from Canada ?”.  

Rick Hansul (rhans)arrives right behind us and with paperwork completed we drive the short distance to Trellis Bay where Rick delivers some parts he has brought with him for a friend. This is thirsty work and calls for a 1st Carib for Michael & Rick -  I enjoy my 1st island Rum & tonic. The drive to Sunsail takes 10mins and that is where we meet the rest of the crew. Skipper/Owner – Herve Liegeois, his daughter Julia and Eric Landau (aka Stinky). They had arrived a couple of hours earlier than us and were overseeing some last minute installations and repairs on boat. M&I had not met any of the others and neither had Rick, but Stinky and Herve’s friendship precedes the well-documented Dudes cruises – both DC #1 & 2.  

The boat – Mama Cocha is a 2002 Lagoon 410 Catamaran that has been in Sunsail’s BVI charter fleet since arriving in the Caribbean . She is being de-commissioned out of Sunsail’s fleet and it turns out that Herve isn’t too happy about what is and isn’t happening - to make matters worse, he puts his back out while lifting the dinghy outboard onto the boat.  

The plan had been for all of us to go out for a crew dinner, after Rite-Way had delivered the initial order of ‘heavy’ provisioning, but with the delays in getting the GPS/Radar installed and some other items fixed, we just had some cheese and biscuits on board. Michael and I had arranged to meet up with Davide and Cele (Brandy Wine Bay Restaurant owners) after their dinner rush was over, so we take the car and go to the restaurant.  Under a full moon we relax and spend a pleasant evening with them.  

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 We are up and about by 9:00 to learn that Herve is clearly in a lot of pain, as well as frustrated with the de-commissioning process and the progress of the repairs. Rick, M & I take off to do the balance of the Rite-Way shop and see if we can find some pain relievers/muscle relaxants for Herve. With that achieved, we get back on the boat, delighted to discover that our missing bag has been delivered intact. But everyone is still waiting for work to be finished on the boat.  

At 1600 hrs the GPS navigation system is working; the radar is installed but it is questionable as to whether it will play an active role in our trip – it does not!

So, ready or not, Mama Cocha, an active player on the BVI scene for two & a half years, slips lines for the last time, and departs BVI waters and laying course for San Salvador , 650 miles North West .  

We are soon out of the FD Channel, passing Sopers Hole; it is time to light the stove and start thinking of our 1st dinner at sea. I put my nose and ear down to see that the stove is working - it doesn’t seem to be. Michael and Rick also have a look, sniff and listen to no avail. We put into Sopers and pick up a ball. First thing Herve does, is go down, put a match to it and – Voila!! The stove does work! I have to admire him for not cursing us up and down. Apparently, this propane does not have the usual odour and the stove does not seem to release gas unless you put a light to it.  

We raise the sails again as we clear out of Sopers - it is now 1800 hrs and we are officially on our way to Miami . As always, we have a beautiful sunset. For our 1st meal at sea I had decided to cook a BVI favorite, Chicken in a Ginger Wine sauce – I had even brought the Stones Ginger Wine all the way from Ontario to ensure that our version of the recipe would produce an excellent 1st dinner. We have a great meal – the crew heartily approve. It is 2000 hrs and our official watch system gets under way.  (Some of the editing was done by other crew members – I don’t brag like that).  

Michael has worked out a good schedule, which put Herve and he as watch leaders through most of the dark hours, with either myself, Stinky or Rick as second. During the day, we just take turns without a determined schedule. We start off well with some light winds but not enough to kill one of the engines. We see a beautiful moon rise over JVD at 1840. Herve has settled into his watch from 1800 to Midnight. Michael will come on from Midnight to 0600. I have the best watches – every sunset and sunup – 1600 to 2000 and 0400 to 0800. I could be on alone from 0600 to 0800 - once the dawn arrives, and if all is quiet Michael will go to put his head down. However, we find in practice that Rick, who has stood the 2000 – 0000, is usually up very shortly after the sun.  

We settle down to our 1st night watches at sea. Sometime during M & my watch we hit 9.6 knots, only to hear the tall tale that Herve and Rick had hit 16! (Turns out to be a very tall tale!!)  

Sunday, Nov 28, 2004 Wind and seas rise slowly and by mid afternoon we can kill engine. Up to this point we have experienced a mixed bag in the weather dept – we have good steady sailing winds for a few hours; then the frustration of dying winds, droping to less than two knots at one point. The radar isn’t working, but with so little traffic about, it doesn’t matter. Julia is not feeling too hot and sleeps most of the day. At one point we furl the genoa and set the gennaker.  When the wind dies again, it gets itself caught on the spreaders and tears. Down it comes, genoa back up.

In the meantime, Eric is trying very hard to catch some fish, either for diner or preferably sushi, but nothing yet. He did buy a complete sushi kit to prepare the freshest sushi you can imagine, so the whole crew is hoping that he will succeed in catching something good, SOON! The hard work means he puts out the lures when he gets up and has half an ear open for when the line lets out. As he gets up a little later every day and he is not allowed to night-fish – the chances are getting slimmer.  

We motor sail through the Sunday night - very bright moon, beautiful sunset and sunrise.  

Monday, Nov 28, 2004 Another virtually cloudless, windless day. Mama Cocha is being motor sailed across a flat sea. (Where are these trade winds??!!). Midmorning we pass a Disney Cruise ship fairly close and call them on the VHF. Get a weather update, which tells us that a cold front is coming our way. At this point we are heading for San Salvador . It is expected to arrive there at 5 pm, but we are still two days out.  

Mid afternoon we go hove to and some of us (Julia, Stinky, Herve and I) go in for a swim. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! Here we are, far from land, over 13,000 feet of water under us , in crystal clear water that is at a perfect temperature. At this point we are off Silver Bank, for those who want to know.  

The night watch has a little more to see, at least 4 ships! Mostly cruise ships and cargo vessels, but none that forced us to change course.  

Tuesday, Nov 30, 2004 I come on watch at 0200, as I cannot sleep and at 0400 team up with Michael; we are still motor sailing but there had been several squalls through during the night. Herve and Rick got the speed record up to 11 knots (and admitted that the 16 kts reported previously was wishful thinking …!!) Sadly the squalls didn’t last long and leave us again with little wind. At 0440 a squall hits us with 25 knots of wind. We reef the genoa for a while and have a good ride. Even though this one doesn’t last more than 15 minutes, we hit 11.6! The seas are now starting to build and ahead is the expected cold front. At 0600 Rick comes up because he has been airlifted out of his forward bunk. We agree that the front has arrived since we now have sustained winds of 25 knots apparent, with gusts up to 33 and are sailing hard to weather. T’is time to get the skipper up and put a reef in the main. After the reef is in (although it isn’t pretty) we re-reef the genoa as well) Michael goes below as does Rick. Through all the banging and bouncing, Eric, who has gone off watch at midnight manages to sleep for over 12 hours. (We get to the point of checking on him to make sure he is OK. Being in the other forward bunk, we really can’t figure out how he does it. – To add to this, two days later, at anchor, I drop a clothes peg on the deck above his bunk and he jumped and yelled: ‘What the…….. is going on up there?” – GO FIGURE!)  

Herve and I go through a horizontally driven rainstorm, but an exhilarating ride. Seas are running at, we estimate 8 to 10 feet, and confused, with moderate swells. When you look out of the escape hatched in the aft cabins, you can imagine you are on a very fast powerboat. The joy of being on a catamaran is that you do not have to secure everything as you do on a mono- so with a little tidying, not too much goes flying. Pouring coffee is a challenge, as is adding the Bacardi Limon to the Carib a little later in the day, but we manage. To this point nobody has been seasick, although Julia could feel better.  

This weather carries on all day and with some of us getting very little sleep (obviously not Stinky, and even Michael manages to sleep for several more hours), Herve decides to change course and put into the Turks and Caicos to get a break –not knowing how long this will carry on. After the course change we are pretty well running, with a wonderful sensation of surfing down the waves. At this time a new record was set at over 13 knots.  

Michael tries to raise Leeward Marina on the VHF, the closest marina, but to no avail, so we carry on further to Turtle Cove Marina. The entrance is very tricky, over a bar and winding through the coral heads and then through a very narrow (just wide enough for the boat) entrance. We make it just before sunset and moor along side at (local time) 1845. We are all (well, almost all) pretty tired, in need of a shower/shave etc and go ashore for dinner. The wind is still howling through the rigging of one particular boat in the marina. It is an early-to-bed night, with reasonable sleep. We need to be ready to go in the morning.  

Wednesday, Dec 1, 2004 We awake to a cloudy day in the T&C Islands - but there is much less wind when we get up. We need to clear customs, in and out, as we are planning to leave by noon, but it takes a while to get a customs officer to come out. (soon come??). Herve manages to put his back out again, even worse than before, whilst coughing in the bathroom. The muscle relaxants we had picked up for him in Tortola were running low, so he resorts to Tylenol 3’s which helps the pain, but sends his head spinning.  

After having been cleared by customs, Stinky, Rick and Julia take a taxi over to The local supermarket – an IGA - to stock up on essentials, beer, beer, beer, coke and milk, and some rum. I (we) should not have been so conservative on our alcoholic beverages, the expected 36 gallons of drinking water we thought we needed in the first 4 days have hardly a dent in them, food stores are great. It turns out that they don’t have Carib and what they have is MUCH more expensive than in Tortola .  

It is 1230 and we slip lines.  Every day is full of laughs. Stinky, with help from Julia and Herve have us in stitches on a regular basis. The crew is working well together and certainly having fun.

 Retracing our in-bound route of the previous evening, we meander out through the tight buoyed channel only to find that the Autopilot isn’t working properly (it shows us about 110 ° off our actual course and therefore, on the screen, we see our boat moving sideways through the water on the GPS. More things for Herve to be frustrated about; more things for the “weren’t fixed” list).

 The sails are raised and I am below. I see water on the cabin floor in the port hull. Lifting the board, it reveals we have a lot of water in the bilge (only on the port side). Rick does a thorough search and finds that an exhaust hose on the port engine is leaking somewhat (Several days later we find it is the ladder on the sugarscoop that is leaking and it is worse than just the bilge). Enough to keep an eye on and be checked and pumped every 12 hours or so.

 I swear that Herve manages to get the boat moving just so when it is time to cook. That’s when it seems that the wind freshens and the seas get lumpy – just on cue to make cooking an interesting proposition. But, so far no complaints – which is just as well, or this crew would find the Mama Cocha’s cooks’ position “vacant”, pretty quickly …….!

 Thursday, Dec 2, 2004 An uneventful night. We sail until about 0430 when the wind dies to such a degree that it is time to fire up the iron mainsail again. Timing is good – we get to pump the bilge again because water is back, sloshing over the hoses in the bilge. Michael goes off watch at 0600 and Rick comes on deck. On cue, the wind picks up and delivers a squall with winds to 30 knots ….. Rick and I can set the new top speed record since leaving the Turks & Caicos - 11.2 knots. Of course it doesn’t last, but it is fun while it does.

 Herve gets up feeling absolutely horrible. Severe back pain, queasy, fever and just plain miserable. He spends most of the day in his bunk. Julia seems to be over her seasickness and is her cheerful self. Everybody else is in good cheer and enjoying the trip tremendously.  I have trouble sleeping, but with an experience like this, that too is manageable.

 Moon rises at 2215. Before that the sky is so full of stars we are literally awestruck. Have a hard time keeping the boat from going too fast. We need to hit the entrance to Staniel Cay during daylight.

 Friday, Dec 3, 2004 0830 and we are approaching Staniel looking for the narrow passage that will allow us to pass through the chain of outer islands and into the shallow interior. Our timing is great – at the right moment we are in just the right position to see a trawler coming out which gives us a clear understanding of the safe route to take. For the 1st time this trip we drop the hook and find ourselves at anchor off the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, a rather grand title for a very small settlement that seems to consist of a few small dwellings and a somewhat desolate collection of small piers attached to the low lying shore line. Its claim to fame is that it was one of the locations used in the filming of Thunderball. To the crew of Mama Cocha, it is a wonderful, peaceful, pretty and quiet place. We are one of only 3 boats at the anchorage. I was up at 0300, and due to lack of sleep, the ‘curse’ – have a melt down. Everyone is very sweet and that too passes before too long.

 We send a party ashore to pick up some essentials, i.e. more beer, clean up the boat and sit around with some early rummers and ba-Coronas (ran out of Carib early on). The rest of the crew dinks over to Thunderball Cave , a grotto with a partially open top that lets the light in. I clean up the boat below, settle on the foredeck, and am about to fall asleep when there is a lot of hollering from Michael. At first I try to ignore it, but then it occurs to me that someone might be hurt. Go aft, only to find that everyone is in stitches, Michael is laughing so hard he has tears running down his face. It’s all about Stinky getting a tow back from the cave behind a jetski. Since I didn’t see it, I’ll let someone else tell the story here.

 (Michael) Unrelated to the upcoming incident, it had been well established among the MC crew that jetskis weren’t anyone’s favorite toy – quite the opposite in fact. All of us except Loonie, had just completed a delightful snorkel of the Bond Thunderball Grotto location and were attempting to re-enter the dingy from the water. Stinky amongst others found this a challenge. However, help was at hand when the kind driver of a jetski, with a young girl riding pillion, gallops up to the rescue – Stinky is invited to climb aboard. 

 Stinky’s 1st attempt was less than successful – approaching the machine from the starboard quarter, he grabs hold and attempts to haul himself aboard. Stinky is a well-built guy and the jetski was clearly no match for our friend; with one good tug the jetski, capsizes, throwing the driver and his young passenger into the water. Score: Stinky 1 – Jetski 0. MC crew are starting to see the amusing side of this. The driver shows a lot of cool at this point and, refusing to give up, insists that Stinky make a 2nd attempt – this time suggesting an approach from the rear. The jetski maintains it’s stability; Stinky fails to extract himself from the water. Score is now: Stinky 1 – Jetski 1. The MC crew are starting to loose it as the scenario is fast taking on the guise of a slap stick comedy routine.

 It becomes clear that neither the jetski and its driver, nor our Stinky are about to throw in the towel – and nobody has left the dingy mooring. Determined to take charge of the situation the jetski driver tells Stinky to hang on tight! With the encouragement of the MC crew, who can no longer restrain their loud mirth, the jetski driver guns the machine and the whole issue – machine, driver, young passenger and last but not least, Stinky holding on like grim death, takes off with a massive roar, attributable in equal decibels to the machine & Stinky. No-one at this point realized the significance of the vertical exhaust, a jetski feature, which appears to be exiting the machine just below where Stinky’s center of gravity was resting – not wanting to hinder the escape of this high powered plume of water, we can see Stinky attempting to adjust his towing point of contact. (In his comment later on, “He was trying to get himself up on the plane.”)

 The MC dingy crew now also takes off, playing outrider to the main event in order to maintain a clear view of the proceedings, which are not over yet. If his shouting was anything to go by, we could be forgiven for assuming that Stinky’s relationship with jetskis is rapidly being reviewed & updated. We are fast approaching the stern of MC when it becomes apparent that at some point after departing the Thunderball Grotto, Stinky has taken a clothing optional stance and was now nearing the conclusion of his quiet little snorkeling trip and jetski encounter - “au natural”. To his credit, or maybe to protect his young passenger’s innocence, the jetski driver drops his tow at MC and heads back on a reciprocal course to retrieve Stinky’s swim suit. By now Loonie has appeared and the whole comedy of errors comes to close.

 Stinky later explains, in some detail, what he has discovered, first-hand (!), about the intricacies and properties of jetski exhaust, with particular attention being paid to the exit temperature of the said fluid under pressure …… he also insists that in spite of being ‘rescued’ by one, planing behind jetskis is unlikely to develop into his favorite pastime.    

 (Loonie) See a sunset with the green flash. Didn’t manage to capture it on film.   

 As a result of Stinky’s ride, he’s met Pablo, the jetski driver. Pablo owns the (power) yacht that has come in earlier. It’s a mere 98 feet long! When we go to diner ashore, Stinky brings over a bottle of Saffire Gin, as a ‘thank you’ for Pablo and he, Herve and Julia have a drink on board. Apparently, it was quite a palace!

 Have a good dinner at the ‘Yacht Club’, a few of the crew drink a little too much and suffer for it the following morning.

 Saturday, Dec 4, 2004 M&I are up at 6 am. The place is so beautiful; don’t want to miss any of it. We had done laundry the day before and as I am gathering my stuff I drop a clothes peg on the foredeck over Stinky’s cabin. “What the……….is going on” – comes across loud and clear. This from the guy who slept 13 hours through a near gale and steep seas!!

 Michael takes me over to the cave, since I hadn’t been there yet. Then everyone has a good wash in the pristine waters at Staniel Cay. There is no way of capturing the unbelievable clarity of the water on camera, but that, and the different hues of the water would make a prize winning picture postcard. At 1100 we raise the anchor and set sail (or rather motor-sail) for Chub Cay some 20 hours away (depending on the wind). Another gorgeous day in paradise. See some dolphins, Stinky catches  a barracuda and has two other lures bitten straight off.

 And of course, cooking time rolls around and the wind get’s up – to 20+ knots. Have another wild ride for 6 hours or so, hitting a top speed of 10.3 knots.

 At some point before I go and put my head down (Michael and Rick are sleeping, Herve, Stinky and I on watch) there are excited shouts from Stinky about lightning in the sky. He’s all worried that if the wind comes up some more and we have to put a reef in the main, it won’t be a good time to be near the mast – Very good point. The problem is that the ‘lightning’ turns from white to red to green – we are watching fireworks over Nassau !

 Sunday, Dec 5, 2004 Wind dies again, motor sail and at 0500 hrs, just before light we decide to carry on to Bimini and not stop at Chub.

 Winds during the day are light to very light and with the engine doing it’s best we still won’t make Bimini before dark. Gun Cay is not far off, a tricky entrance to get to the lee side of the island, but we make it just before sunset. We set the anchor in Honeymoon Harbour (although where the name ‘Harbour’ comes from doesn’t become clear until the next day. Gun Cay is a small, deserted island, a picturesque anchorage and we are the 3rd boat in. Although the bottom looks like sand, and it is very shallow, we have a few tries before we are safely hooked in.

 Stinky offers to cook dinner – and does a wonderful job. No chicken for a change, but a wonderful combination of cabbage, sausages cooked in beer, broccoli and other goodies. We share a Bartolitto after dinner, and before long the midnight watch crew is back in bed. Julia, Stinky, Herve and I stay up for a while longer, watch another boat come in after dark and set the anchor, or according to some it was the boat that was there, laughing at our attempts to set, only to have to reset their own. It is amazing how tiring cruising (and drinking) can be. Julia and Stinky stay up and discuss LIFE, but the rest of us put our head down for a decent night’s sleep.

 Rick is the quiet one on board, but is worth his weight  in gold. He got his head down the bilges when it was rough to find out what was causing us to take on water, came up with several other solutions to ‘boat’ problems and is a great watch mate. Stinky is our main source of entertainment as well recorded here, coupled with Julia. Herve is an excellent skipper, but I am sure would have been a lot happier had he not put his back out, hurt like hell and felt awful. Throughout it all he kept in good spirits and when not hurting added to the entertainment with great stories and jokes. Michael tried to keep the log up to date, a requirement Herve had set before the trip – an complete entry every hour – which had dropped to two or three a day. Apart from his watch, he devoured books and slept like a choirboy. Julia, apart from being part of the entertainment party, kept up with her homework, maybe not so much with keeping her and Herve’s cabin clean and tidy, and was a joy to have around for me especially. There is only so much male BS one can take. I couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant crew to sail with.

 Monday, Dec 6, 2004 Up anchor at 0830 and motor over to Bimini. Difficult entrance, specially since the (so far) wonderful GPS chart at the helm has us sailing across the middle of the island. As we are nosing our way in, over many shifting sandbanks, we see a powerboat come out at high speed and watch his passage carefully. That brings us to the thriving island and we come along side at Blue Water Resort. Where the word Resort comes in, I’m not sure, except that we later discover that the showers are great.

 Herve, as skipper is the only one off the boat to go and clear us. And he puts his back out again, this time pretending to be a Rockette, he’s not in a patient state of mind, but after a visit back to the boat to pick up more paperwork, he get’s us and the boat legally into the Bahamas .

 Julia is jumping at the bit to go and explore and before long she takes Stinky on the mile long hike around the island. Michael and I meet them on their way back, so she offers to give us a guided tour, well worth it, she takes us to a great pottery shop, we find a place to eat for the evening, but the island is very quiet at this time of year.

 Stinky and Rick have discovered CJ’s in the meantime and are well into lunch, drinks etc. I decide to go back to the boat for a nap, only to find that Herve has upended our bed to get to the engine compartment and is bailing furiously. He’s discovered that the engine compartment has bulkheads in it, a bit like the Titanic, these didn’t reach all the way to deck level either. The water that we had been taking in had to overflow two or three of the bulkheads before it got into the bilge, but even with the bilge dry, there was an awful lot of water in the compartments.

 For the next 45 minutes or so, Herve and I work in tandem, bucket after bucket and manage to get some of the load overboard. It is hard to determine where the water is coming in, Herve thinks it is either through the through deck fixings of the ladder, or a worse case, the deck, hull joint at the sugarscoop.

 At dinner time, Stinky decides he’s staying on board, so the rest of us take off to the Great Game Resort, a very nice, breezy restaurant for a good meal.

 Tuesday, Dec 7, 2004 Slipped lines and set sail for Miami at 0715. The trip is another motor sail, at some point it gets a little less than smooth as we cross the Gulf Stream and about 20 plus miles out – i.e. still in Internationsl waters!! - we have an US Coastguard vessel join us. They check us out from the sides, and from the rear and next we know they launch a bright orange Inflatable Whaler . We are moving at 7 knots through the water, have two trawling fishing lines off the stern(s) and they have a rookie driver on board. It is  really quite hilarious, watching the poor guy trying to come along side to put  the 3 man boarding party on Mama Cocha, but in the end he managed.  

The ’Mothership’, as Stinky promptly names the Coast Guard Vessel ‘Farillon’, stands off to port and the Whaler to starboard – both driving Stinky to hand signals to make sure they stay out of the way of his fishing lines. Personally, I though it would have been a hoot if the Whaler had been caught on one of the large hooks that were on the end of the line.

 Officer Parker is wired to the ‘Mothership’, with headphones and a mike, and sends his two buddies below to search Mama Cocha. Some of the crew get a little worried about the state of their cabins and the placement of their dirties, but as we are to stay in the cockpit there is not much to do about it. When the search party came back up with ‘nothing to report’ Julia decided to find out what all their equipment was around their belt. So, she very innocently points to the various pouches, getting a fairly terse reaction:” Don’t touch me”. We do find out that they carry pepper spray, a gun, extra ammo a baton etc etc. Then Officer Parker takes Herve through all the passports, safety equipment, and with a warning that the boat registration is out of date, they call for the Whaler to come and pick them up.

 The driver manages to come along side again, pick up the bag and two of the boarding party before stalling the engine again, Officer Parker makes a comment about sailing to Miami with us. But he too gets rescued from the Fair Ship Mama Cocha, while the ‘Mothership’ has now got quite a crew watching on the after deck. 

After a further uneventful motor sail, we come alongside the fuel dock at Miami Island Marine at 1445. First things first, Rick is kind enough to go and find Julia and I some cigarettes, we’ve been out for at least a couple of hours! Herve goes off to find Florida Yacht Charters, the people who will get Mama Cocha ready for charter in the Abacos, and some of us are somewhat ‘Blue’ knowing the trip is over. Others get their cell phones out and catch up with the world, something I have little urge to do. Florida Yacht Charters has some trouble finding us a slip, as we are a day early, but when they do, it is right under a freeway. WELCOME HOME!

 It is too late to clear customs (which Herve does by phone the next morning – 45 minutes of repeating himself and going over all the stuff that the Coastguard already has on file) and certainly not enough time to clear immigration, which we all have to do in person – after the customs clearance. Instead we clean up and go to the bar. I believe that without exception, we all felt the bar swaying, more than was comfortable, even though none of us had the problem at any of the other landfalls. Meet some great yachties at the bar, Adrian, a cute little kid and others.  Go for Haitian food, have a great meal with Greg and Rosemary from FYC. After dinner retire to the boat where some go straight down, and some enjoy another glass of Bartolitto.  

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 This is the day we have to clear the boat, clear customs and immigration, and say our goodbyes. The boat was easy, immigration a whole other story. Greg and Rosemary have lent us their car and all of us pile into it. Herve seems to know where he is going and once we get to the Port Authority we are stopped at a booth, a bit like a border crossing. Here an officious man takes all the information of the passports again, enters it into yet another computer, and then tells us to go to a police car just down the road that will escort us to the immigration office. As there were several police cars parked within sight, we stop at the first who initially totally ignores us. After a while she, the officer, leads us to a building, tells us where to park and drives off. Upon entering the building we are first told to all come into the office, then told to wait outside of the office, only to find out that this is customs, not immigration. A gentleman comes out with us and gives us directions to immigration, Terminal 6. Very simple, just go to the stop sign and drive straight to the water, it is the last building. Well, the road doesn’t go straight anywhere, we see signs for Terminals 8&9, and Terminals A to E, but no mention of 6. After having gone around in circles we see another police car, which Herve waves down. The copper is all upset that we are driving around without an escort! He does manage to get us to the right building after retracing our steps, where we do end up clearing immigration – we are now legal. Had we had to use a cab, it would have cost us a fortune.

 On the way back to the boat we stop for Rick to rent a car so he can go and visit some old friends in the Keys. He also drives Stinky, M & I to Fort Lauderdale , where we catch our flight back to Buffalo and Stinky is met by his sister. Saying goodbye is very hard.

 A fantastic trip, a great crew, and a real letdown being home again.

The second leg