Dear Friends and Family,
      "The hurrieder I go the behinder I get," would be an appropriate theme 
for what's been going on this past week. Mary and I have been getting all of 
those last little details taken care of this past week in preparation to go 
to the Bahamas. It all started this past Tuesday when Mary took Melissa and 
Abby to the airport after they had spent a week with us. The intention was to 
send Razor home with Melissa so we wouldn't have to hassle with the Bahamian 
authorities. Mary had called and talked to the American Airlines people the 
week beforehand and they said "no problem" so when Mary shows up at the 
airport, with Razor, they said "big problem."
It seems that you can't ship dogs by air after May the 15th. I guess Razor 
will just have to go along with us to the Bahamas. Then there was the damaged 
propeller that we got when live bait bucket got sucked under the boat while 
we were setting the anchor. That cost us about 3 days delay and $300.00. The 
good news is that we have been able to get all of those nagging little 
problems that we have been putting off fixed. Yesterday I had Mary in the 
Bosun's chair and cranked her all of the way to the top of the mast to change 
the bulb in our tri-color navigation light. Yes, she did get some looks and 
comments but heights do not scare Mary so she actually enjoyed the view. Two 
days ago we went grocery shopping with the loan of a friend's pickup truck 
and we filled the bed with beer, juice and groceries that we will need when 
we leave here. The wind has been blowing hard out of the North for the past 
week and there have been a lot of boats stuck in port around here waiting for 
a favorable weather window. I heard reports of 12-20 foot seas in the gulf 
stream on the local weather station. Needless to say we will not be headed 
out of here until things calm down. Not to worry though, if we do encounter 
heavy seas we will have plenty of ballast with all of the beer, soda and 
juice that we stuffed our bilges with. For those of you who have never been 
to the Bahamas beer costs about $4.00 a pop and fruit juice is about three 
times what we pay for it in the states. Mary and I are still contemplating 
sending Razor back to NC but have yet to discover how to do it in a cost 
effective way that won't take forever. If any of you out there have any ideas 
on the subject let me know. I am also going to give out the website address 
once more for you newcomers so please copy it down. 

www.geocities.com/rayrayweb2002

      I think I am going to have to hoist Mary back up to the top of the mast 
again today to adjust the lens on our tri-color navigation light. The bulb is 
burning all right but the lens looks like it is turned the wrong way. Oh 
well!
Good luck and God Bless all of you and pray for calm weather this coming week 
so we can get started for the Bahamas

Sincerely...............Rick