Slow, Slow, Slow

On Monday, April 6, we dropped Dave and Lorna at the airport and went directly to customs to clear out of The Turks and Caicos. Piece of cake. Very nice folks at customs. We will miss our guests. They were the best, especially putting up with Michaels angry outbursts at the outboard and weather that didn't cooperate till the end of their stay. More on their excellent adventure and visit later, when we will not have to type on a rolling boat.

Sorry about not updating. Been a strange passage so far. Left Grand Turk around 1145, Monday and motorsailed out. We had to avoid some banks(to avoid big seas) so took a rather circuitous route. This added time and slowed us down. The wind has been erratic, so that also slowed us. At noon on Wednesday we are motoring in calm winds with no sails.

The big news is we are still learning lots about Astarte! We now know that she doesn't like to motor with the windvane paddle in the water. We couldn't figure out why we couldn't maintain at least 5k motor sailing and as soon as we took off the paddle(this morning), we gained speed. Go figure. May be an issue with alignment, we will try and figure that out. We now have to be careful with our fuel supply. We don't want to sail to anchor but do want to get into Boqueron. We are motoing at close to 6k now and making good time. We will see how the arrival time works out. We would like to be in by tomorrow night but will not enter a strange harbor after dark. All is well, fishing line in the water, the sun is out, the temperature is great and the water is blue! Up next: THE MONA PASSAGE!