Before continuing with our shakedown cruise I should mention a surprise we had in Ft. Lauderdale. You may recall the handheld VHF radio we'd given to the people on that small fishing boat that lost its engine. Well, it turned up in Ft. Lauderdale with a lovely note saying how much they appreciated the radio since it was the only way they kept in contact with the tow boat until they were rescued.

Once in the Bahamas some of us dove down to work on the boat and discovered one keel had sustained some damage probably from our antics in the ICW. The damage won't sink us though so we'll keep going. A more serious problem is the oil leaking out somewhere around the water pump on the port engine. Because of the leak we can only run that engine to keep the refrigeration going.

Tonight Star finally peed - first time since Ft. Lauderdale and an event which took 5 minutes to complete and half an hour for Charlie to clean up. Of course it happened just after Charlie went to bed. The next day we took Star ashore in the dinghy.

Continuing south, now it's our male cat, Tiki (short for Tequila), who has a problem. He's refusing to eat due to motion sickness, so I take him out of the center cabin and introduce him to the rest of the interior of the boat - and to Star. Tiki starts to eat normally.

Since we've always had crew on the boat, I'm just now learning how the sails work and try my hand at working the genoa for the first time. (You'll recall I had never been on a sailboat before this one.) We have a 150% genoa and to raise it, you first determine the direction of the wind and let out the sheet on the opposite side. Then you let out a bit of the line running from the cockpit to the roller furler at the bow. Finally you grind the other sheet to shorten the line and unfurl the sail.

We're running the generator at least 4 hours a day to provide air-conditioning to the cats in the center cabin as it's entirely too hot otherwise. That cabin has 2 hatches but neither can be opened due to the waves. Star seems to be using the fake grass mat we have for him - quite a feat since he's about 12 years old and not easily trained.

After 3 days of rough seas we finally anchored at Grand Turk on June 15. By the way, we're taking on 2 paying guests and 2 family members in San Juan on June 23 for a weeks sailing in the Virgin Islands so we're really making time. We took the dinghy in and docked it at a rusty old ladder and climbed up. As we started walking, we met up with guys from Customs who gave us a ride to their office where we filled out a mountain of paperwork - love those British islands.

We also need diesel fuel but will have to use our jerry cans to get it at a gas station in town. Noticing a Peter Hughes diveboat "Wind Dancer" at the dock we start talking to a guy on board who offers to take us and our jugs to the station. We made one trip which filled the generator tank and one fuel tank partially. We still needed 80 gallons more.

Grand Turk was also celebrating the Queen's Birthday which was why mostly everything was closed. We did find a phone and ATM though. We also found a local restaurant where we had dinner. Prior to dinner Charlie discovered he'd lost his wallet, probably on the truck while we were hauling fuel. As we were eating, the guy from "Wind Dancer" appeared with the wallet fully intact.

To be continued.