US arrival

After a very long 33 hours of traveling, I finally arrived in Florida and am recovering in true style with lots of adult beverages and catch up talk. We have a rental car for 2 days so have been shopping and getting a good look at Naples . This is the second richest county in America and full of old rich white folks, huge houses & gorgeous shops. I realized this afternoon that I have not seen a teenager or Mum with stroller since I arrived. It feels soulless. The boat looks great and is so comfortable. I have lots to do as 1st mate - trying to get the stores and provisioning organized. Today we did a huge grocery shop and will continue to add things as we go. Almost time for dinner - Huge American steaks & salad. After I will challenge the skipper to game of cribbage and have a very early night as the jet lag is starting to kick in and I'm feeling a little wobbly ( could be the margaritas we had at the dingy dock pub earlier this evening)

The Plan

The Plan is to sail from Florida to Cuba, staying at Hemingway Marine for approx 2 weeks. It is 10 kms east of Havana. Then heading west, across to Mexico, then south to Belize, Honduras and the San Blas Islands off Panama. We should transit  the Panama Canal in February. At this time of year in the Carribean, there should be no hurricanes as the season has just finished. However, we are prudent weather watchers and avoid stormy or rough weather at all costs.

4 days to go

Thursday 24/11/11. I have just finished all my work commitments of teaching at TAFE and tutoring students so have a few days left to pack and get out of town. Spoke to the skipper this morning and all is good that end. He is sailing down the west coast of Florida and should be in Naples on Friday. We will have a couple days to do some serious provisioning , where I will update this blog. We then will sail to Key West Florida. This blog is very bare and I am trying to add a Google earth map but no luck at this time.

Count Down

I have 1 week to go before I leave home on my next adventure at sea. I will be flying from Brisbane  to  Fort Laudedale, Florida, then driving across the tip of Florida on a road called "Alligator Alley" through the Florida Wetlands to a town called Naples. There I will board the SV Le Chat Beaute, a 42' Privilege Catamaran ( pictured above). The skipper and owner of the boat is a guy called Paddy Barry. We have previously crossed the Pacific together in 2006-8 on a 42' sloop called SV Zafarse.  So hopefully, this will be another exciting adventure....