January 09, 2000 -- US Bound

At 1130 GMT, we left West End for West Palm Beach. Paul came over to see us off and helped with lines. Considering that it was O' Dark-thirty, it was very kind of him! As we pulled out, Lynn poked her head out and waved good bye to us as well. They are a great couple, and I hope we run into them again. At 1208 GMT, we spotted two funnel clouds well off to our starboard side. They didn't come very far down, but they were well defined. We decided to head upwind of them, just in case. At 1350 GMT, we spotted another funnel cloud off our port aft quarter. After that, there were no other weather anomalies. Around 1400, we put our sails out and our speed went from 8.1 knots to 9.0+ knots, now and then making over 10 knots. We weren't quite sailing, but were motor sailing. We cruised along at that speed until we got about 45 minutes out of West Palm Beach. The trip itself was beautiful. We were both able to go inside without fear of getting sea sick, I even cooked breakfast! We flipped on the water maker and then enjoyed the cruise back in nearly flat seas, good winds and a great sail. We dropped sails just outside of the sea buoy at West Palm Beach, and motored the rest of the way in. We dropped the hook at 1840 GMT. First on the list, we called Yvonne to let her know that we had made it back. Then we called Customs. They were very nice, especially since we had not received our Customs decal yet. We quickly cleared in and received our clearance number which we promptly entered in our log book. We fixed cheese and crackers, then sat outside while we each called our parents to let them know that we had arrived back, and to wish them a Happy New Year. We pulled e-mail and set about answering letters