Caribbean 1500 - Sapphire - We arrived safely last Tuesday!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry we have been so out of touch! We lost our offshore email system
just as we were leaving and were unable to send email updates. This
is the first day I have been on email since we arrived. We are alive
and well and had a great trip.

We had winds behind us the whole way and Sapphire does not do as well
in those conditions. We left our spinnaker at home (because it takes
up a lot of room and we use it very little), so we did not make great
time. We did have a great time!! We caught 4 mahi-mahi and one that
was 63' long and weight approximately 55 pounds. Fred picked out the
lure, Jim caught it (took 45 minutes), Bill cleaned it and I took
pictures!! So it was a team effort. I will send out pictures in a
few days when I get a good signal, so you can see for yourself how big
he was!

We had dolphins visit twice, once they stayed a long time and we have
a picture and video.. not sure I can email that... it may be too big.
All in all it was our best trip ever! Thank you so much Jim and Fred,
you guys made it happen! They were outstanding crew members.

I will write more in a few days and hopefully include pictures! Just
wanted to get this out and let you know we are alive and well.

It was very sad that a boat was lost in the Bahamas. They were
advised not to go, but the owner's wife wanted off the boat so they
decided to divert to the Bahamas. The cuts going in can be very
dangerous with huge seas. A wave washed over the boat, taking the
dinghy and davits, the bimini and doger and mast, and everyone on
board. They crawled back on the boat and THEN put on their life vests
and deployed their emergency life raft. It was swamped and three of
them were washed up on the beach. One crew member was never found.
It was really a tragedy.

I will write more soon... just wanted to let all of you know we are
OK! Sorry you couldn't get the daily updates!!

The Crew of Sapphire,

Bill, Linda, Brie, Jim and Fred