We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Well we finally made it back to the good old U.S. of A.!! After checking out a great Bahamian festival at Green Turtle Cay, we decided to start making some tracks westward toward the states. Here's a photo album from Green Turtle's 5th Annual Island Roots Heritage Festival, where the kids competed quite successfully in a number of games.

As it turned out, the weather was really favorable the day we left Green Turtle; the winds were in the right direction; and the States kept getting closer. So, we just kept on going. We left the Abacos on Sunday morning at about 6:15 a.m.. When we next stopped, thirty plus hours later, we were 180 miles along and moored in Vero Beach, Florida.

Since Jo and the kids were down below during most of the night, I spent the 30 hours at the helm. It is not like anyone really slept though. The seas in the Gulf Stream were still a bit lumpy and everyone was pretty anxious given that this was our first overnight sail on the boat. Yes, it was as exhausting as it sounds. But we got in to Florida at about noon and after a three hour nap the family had me up and running out to Nino's Pizza in Vero for our first really good meal out in four months.

During our crossing of the Gulf Stream we marked the approximate middle of the stream and launched another message in a bottle. The picture at the top of the post is of Emily working on the note and preparing the bottle. Jake was awake at 3:30 a.m. and so he got to toss the bottle overboard into the stream.