Relief!!

What can I say? I dumped the dinghy back in the water today and inflated the repaired tube. No discernible leak. That means relief. When my two previous attempts failed then I was unsure of this outcome. I'm sure it will never be perfect but it has held air all day today. Such a stupid accident to begin with.

In the future if I should ever face a tear in the fabric again I'll do an internal patch followed by the external patch. I had a lot of trouble working through the slit so in the future I'll make an actual hole that I can work and see through something on the order of 1" square. It will be covered by the external patch. Hopefully I'll not have to do this again -- at least not to my dinghy.

The crossing forecast is looking good for a smooth crossing of the Gulf Stream on Thursday. We started final preparations here today and if the forecast is still good in the morning we will "peel" ourselves from Velcro Beach and head down the coast for Lake Worth. Probably go to Hobe Sound tomorrow to anchor -- a distance of 49 miles then Wednesday head to lake Worth to anchor but stop first at a marina to fill the water tanks and the fill up on diesel and gas for the dinghy.

Staring to get that normal crossing anxiety. We don't have a dedicated buddy boat. Several boats are looking to cross Thursday too but all have a slightly different approach. I want to just run non stop to Green Turtle Cay which means running the bulk of the trip over the banks in the dark and relying on instruments. I've done it twice already but always had at least one buddy boat running with us. If we get too tired we can always anchor off Great Sale Cay on Mangrove Cay for the night and continue in the morning.

Plans are in a constant state of flux right now. There is the adventure!