Whew! Ten days without internet. It was great until we were supposed to have it and it didn't work, then it is just frustrating. Even now it is a pretty tenuous connection, so we will see how uploading of pictures goes. We are currently docked at the Green Turtle Club on Green Turtle Cay and are not sure exactly when we will leave. Possibly tomorrow (Friday), but the winds are still forecast to be 30+, so we will make decisions tomorrow. As always, we battle too little or too much wind.

I'll start with today and then recap our last week and half in another post. Today is Kaylee's 5th Birthday! Thank you to everyone for all the email and blog birthday wishes and little gifts. She jumped on our bed this morning and said, "It's my birthday and I'm 5 years old! I'm so excited!" She has been counting down the days for the last week. She has also been a little worried about whether her birthday would be fun, and to be honest we were a little worried about where we would be and whether we would be able to make it special for her. The day came together beautifully. We started the morning with cards and a couple presents that we brought with us, then a very special treat of Skype phone calls to grandparents. Those were our first phone calls in about 2 weeks (well, except one to Janet related to Nugget - get to that later). Kaylee watched a new movie she got while we prepped to dinghy in to New Plymouth, the town on Green Turtle Cay. Ken also went to the little convenience store here at the Green Turtle Club to confirm the cake he ordered from the mother of the store manager was on schedule to be delivered later in the afternoon. The mother runs a bakery in town. 

We then took a bit of a wet dinghy ride to town - that's the problem with 30 knot winds. In town we had a wonderful conch and fish lunch at the Wrecking Tree with our dock neighbors Norm and Jaye, walked around town and picked up a few groceries. Kaylee learned quickly that if she told everyone today was her birthday, many would give her something. Norm and Jaye presented her with Nemo card first thing this morning and the grocery store owners gave her M&M's.

We rushed back to the boat so Kaylee could go to the pool and hopefully meet up with two kids she met this morning. She, Nicholas (5) and Samantha (6) wore themselves silly diving for torpedoes, racing and doing handstands. We invited Nicholas, Samantha and their parents Stacy and Paul to the boat for cake later. We were so full from a late lunch, we skipped dinner and just had cake when everyone showed up at the boat this evening.

The kids had a blast playing down in the boat while we visited and exchanged boat stories with Norm and Jaye and Paul and Stacy up in the cockpit. We learn so much from the people we meet who are full time live-aboards and seasoned cruisers. Listening to everyone's stories of passages and boat woes teaches us something new all the time and gives us ideas of new places to go.

We motored in to West End this morning, crossing the Gulf Stream last night. Other than lack of sleep and having to motor, it was pretty easy. We started out sailing, but with only an east wind and the current pulling us 30 to 60 degrees off our point, there was no way to make easterly progress. We could have made it to Georgia, but not the Bahamas.

We have cleared customs and immigration, had a nice lunch at the resort here, topped off with fuel and are going to stay here tonight. Tomorrow we will go to Great Sale Cay to anchor, then on to the Abacos.

We are leaving Biscayne Bay as I write this. We will sail overnight to Grand Bahama to check in and go through Customs and Immigration, tomorrow morning hopefully. I am not sure how often we will have connection, so updates may be a little more sporadic. I have 'WhatsApp' for international texting for those interested (.99 in the App Store).

Thank you to everyone who helped us out in Miami! Especially Monica and Vicki, and Roger and Aleida! And Roberto, Graciela and the girls for an amazing dinner.

Hope to write and post photos again soon!
Danielle (and Ken and Kaylee)

Happy Mothers Day!!!! Although we wish we could have seen our mothers today, our friends Monica and Vicki made everyone feel special and included us in their family gathering. We enjoyed a tremendous brunch at the yacht club their son Sean races out of (even though we didn't get to see Sean yet because he was racing in the finals of a regatta in Venice, Italy today!) and then a relaxing and fun afternoon by the pool at their house.

We are on the move again after spending two and half weeks in Marathon. We had a really great time the last three days spending time with Kyle, Kate and Kate's family on their vacation. We hope we didn't intrude too much, but we really enjoyed all the dinners, snorkeling, and kid play time. And as always, we took advantage of access to a car to do some grocery shopping and other miscellaneous errands. Today, they headed to Key West and we went east to Rodriguez Key. Tomorrow we plan to make it to Miami and spend the weekend there visiting with friends.