And ... They're Off !!!

And she doesn't want to get to over stimulated - to soon!

Katie needs to find her sea legs as this is the first boat trip for the princess in 4 months!

Here's an outside look at the Captains seat. Where's the Captain? Did I mention the new varnish?

All jungle systems have been checked, re-checked and running smoothly. Except for the crap that ain't working. However, I did redo the varnish on the teak you see and it's shining baby! We also changed the port name on the boat from Marhall Islands to the actual port listed on the documentation: Bikini. So this is what you see on the transom:

JUNGLE
BIKINI

Pretty catchy, eh?

Ah yes, the new Marshall Islands flag flies beautifully in the late afternoon sun while Jungle cruises south from Cape Canaveral to Ft. Pierce, FL. From there, we'll sail overnight to Grand Bahamas, West End to check into paradise. Turns out Jenée and I love overnight, open ocean sailing. We always seem to have the sea to ourselves and we arrive at a new harbor in the daylight - much safer than trying to arrive before nightfall - and missing by just a bit.

But first back to these adorable love blobs. I believe your not supposed to interfere in any way with these guys but heck, once that hose is on, it's on! They'd come up every morning and say "Dude, got a little agua for a thirsty bro?" We told them we are going to the Bahamas for the month of April. They seem to say "Right on" While here I reconnected with cousin Dave Fraine and wife Roberta. Dave's not too happy with the cutbacks at the Kennedy Space center as that has been his work home for close to 30 years. In his previous job, Dave captained one of two ships that retreived the space shuttle reuseable rockets, as well as other less fun rcovery missions. It was fantastic to catch up again with Dave and Roberta and meet their cool family. Their youngest Kaitlan (another Katie) is beginning her professional soccer career.

We need to say goodbye to Titusville, FL to our flippered freinds, the Manatees. These guys weigh over a half ton each and just love fresh water. Everytime I clean the boat, here they come. To catch you up on our plans, Jenée and I are setting sail for Portugal! Now how do we get there? Simple, we sail, in order to, Bahamas, Tortola-BVI, Bermuda, Azores and finally Portugal. We've heard great things about Portugal, but more on that later. We will sail with ARC Europe and about 30 other vessels from Tortola to Portugal. ARC Europe is and organization that manages all travel and safety conditions as can be expected for an ocean crossing. We will be in constant contact with ARC and each other for weather, emergency, chit-chat, etc. It makes it so that if need be, we can sail it alone. However, I'm happy to report we have great friends who are even greater enthusiasts and are willing to crew along with us. We'll update everyone on that later ...