Back in the U.S.A.

I know it has been a couple of weeks since my last posting but I have a good excuse. The crew and I worked our butts off while Athena was in drydock. Six am to Six pm. Polishing the hull, painting the bottom, and lots of caring for our yacht while she was treated like a commercial container ship. Freeport was a whole lot of work, with little time for anything but sleep during my off hours. However it was well worth the work, she looks beautiful as ever, and is closer and closer to being ready for our around the world cruise.

Athena has a long, tentative list of destinations, but we do know she is headed for the Pacific. Currently we are in West Palm Beach, Florida, and are soon headed for the Caribbean. Once we leave here we are headed for St. Martin, St. Barts, Antigua, Panama, Galapagos, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia; with a 5 month stint in Australia. Of course there will be many places in between, but I will keep you all updated.

I'm keeping this post short and sweet. I've worked all day, sailing the boat from Freeport to West Palm, and washing the salt off her hull. I'm tired, and happy. Click here for some photos to make up for my inability to type any longer.

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Diving with the Sharks

After spending an entire week helping out in the engine room I decided to head out for some diving here in the Bahamas. We hired a local guide, and a couple of us went on a diving excursion.

We intended on diving a wreck at 110 feet, as well as diving with the sharks at about 40 feet. But once we got out to the site of the wreck my regulator was malfunctioning... Damn. I was really itching to get wet. I could've risked it, but given the depth of the dive and the fact that we would be penetrating the wreck I decided to err on the safe side. After the rest of the crew came to the surface, we quickly repaired my gear and went on to the next dive site, the shark dive. Upon mooring the boat we looked down into the crystal blue water (you can see the bottom when it's 40 feet deep) and saw the schooling sharks. There were about 15 of them, 6-8 feet long each. They are used to being fed in the area and tend to school, waiting for divers. As soon as we jumped in, they showed immediate interest, and certainly didn't mind coming close. We could have literally reached out and touched them, it was absolutely amazing. Have a look at some photos, or the video we took of them schooling.

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