I am finishing up last minute laundry while Howard is on his way to Road Town to check us out of the BVI. The wind is favorable for us to make a start today. So, we plan to go as far as Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas (USVI) this afternoon, then go to Puerto Del Ray Marina near Fajardo, Puerto Rico tomorrow where we will await the arrival of our crew, Steve Thompson, on the 17th. We then plan to head out early on the 18th for Puerto Plata Ocean World marina in the Dominican Republic, which will be an overnight sail. We hope to time our departure so we can arrive with plenty of daylight left to see ourselves into the marina safely.

We have had several people help check out a few little items that have been concerning us and were thankful we did so. The refrigeration guy reassured us that our freezer is working well but suggested several ways of reducing opportunities for moisture to enter the freezer compartment and hence reduce build-up of frost on the plates. So hopefully it will run more efficiently now (and use less precious battery power). We also had Lincoln check out our starter battery which has been reluctant to start the battery of late. Sure enough, it was proclaimed dead and has been replaced. He also checked out some of our hoses for the engine and suggested replacing the raw water hose. Having seen its state when it came out, we are extremely thankful of having replaced it. That could have been a major problem….

Howard has also added an attachment point to the dinghy transom, which should improve the ease of securing it firmly on the davits for our passages. So, we just have to secure the extra fuel and water tanks on the deck and we should be ready for the off….