We arrived in Miami on Feb. 10, 2007, after a short hop from Vero Beach to Fort Pierce, and then a pleasant overnight motor-sail in good weather from Ft. Pierce to Miami offshore. Unfor- tunately the diesel drip from the fuel line area was still evident on our offshore passage; Larry had to take it apart twice to try to slow it down while we were underway. It's not much but is enough to concern us, and we want to fix it before we leave the US. We have a new fuel pump on order and will install it here in Miami. Also, Debby is sick again, so we're doing maintenance on the boat and resting to recover before we hop over to the Bahamas.

We sailed past some huge cruise ships; Miami is a big port for cruises. We're anchored over by the Venetian Causeway in Miami Beach and are exploring the city with a great bus and rail system. We know we wouldn't want to settle here, but Miami is a pretty nice place to hole up for a week or two.

We have had to slow down to recover from illness. We've been holed up in Vero Beach, Florida, for three weeks now, as Debby recovers from a bout with the flu. It's been pretty warm here, in the 70s and 80s mostly, so it's been a good place to stay put for a while. We hope to go south a bit, and position ourselves in Lake Worth at Palm Beach, FL, to wait for an opportunity to cross over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. We may get favorable weather to do a crossing as early as Wednesday, Feb. 7. We'll just have to see what the weather does for us!