We had such a lovely time anchored in Big Trunk Bay that it was hard to make the decision to move back to Spanish Town. But we had to in order to prepare the boat for the coming month and the Atlantic crossing thereafter. We had planned to leave for Turks and Caicos last Thursday evening but when the list of things to do seemed endless we decided to postpone the departure one day. We bought more food, updated the homepage with pictures and a movie, applied for studies, replied to emails, fixed a few things on the boat and refilled a LPG bottle. Strangely our two small 2 kg propane bottles emptied in less than a week each. We hope that it was due to not being filled properly on St. Martin otherwise if that is how long they lasts we have a problem. We haven't been able to fill or exchange our butane bottles, Camping Gaz, for a while, they are now empty and we don't think it will be possible to get them exchanged until the Azores. The man who filled one of our propane bottles on Virgin Gorda was really nice and we are quite sure he did it properly, therefore we wait anxiously to see how long this one lasts, if it doesn't last more than a week we will have to eat cold food in the end of our next Atlantic crossing.

 Friday morning came and we were almost ready to leave in the afternoon. Then while we were having breakfast a familiar boat approached the bay and when she got closer we could make out the palms and sunset in the Safari logo. We last saw them on Antigua and the prospect of spending a last evening together with them made us change our departure plans, one more night on Virgin Gorda. They had caught a Kingfish on their way up to the BVIs and invited us for dinner. It was a fantastic evening, fish soup, Piña Coladas and splendid company. We showed them our movie and they played theirs, we all got rather excited about crossing the Atlantic, Catrine included, and talked about our coming crossing. The weather seems to be the biggest fear among us, we all wish to stay away from the low pressures building in the north and prefer to use the engine if we have to choose between that or facing a storm. Cecilie and Lars on Safari will leave together with a few other boats from St. Martin around the 5^th of May. Our plan is to leave Cuba earlier than that to be able to catch up with the other boats on the Azores. Emelie will take a plane to Havanna on the 23^rd of April and then we will do the final preparations and look for the right weather.

Saturday, two days later than planned, we had decided to leave Virgin Gorda. But, while we still were asleep Starfire anchored in front of us. Alan and Emelie came over and woke us up, nice. We chatted for a while and had a pleasant breakfast in their company. By the time we were ready to start with the final preparations it was too hot, we had to take a swim. I swam over to Starfire and got Emelie and Alan to join us in the water, then we could continue to catch up in the water. When cooled down it was time for work again. The girls packed and stored Volare, made Monitor ready and lowered DuoGen to watermode, while I carefully planned our route on the computer and manually programmed waypoints into the handheld gps. Finally we were set to go. Emelie and Alan watched us take up our anchor and then waved to us while we headed out of the bay. Safari was anchored further out, Cecilie and Lars came on deck dressed in pink, Cantare colour, and toasted to our departure with Piña Coladas.  Half passed four in the afternoon we hoisted the sails and although the wind was weak we could enjoy butterfly sailing throughout the evening and night. Monitor handled the slow speed, 2.5 knots, surprisingly well. Today the wind has picked up and we doing around 6 knots. It feels almost like on the Atlantic, a great feeling. We started with 430 M to go and now we have left. Everything works well, DuoGen produces power and the watermaker fills our tank. Catrine is relaxed, we are doing four-hours-watches and it works fine. Life is almost perfect, one thing I miss though is a fish on our trailing pink lure, but maybe that is to wish for too much. / The Captain