Penny and I are planning to take "the Horse" to the Eastern Caribbean this fall. We intend to depart from Beaufort, NC sailing directly to either Virgin Gorda or St. Martin. The rhumbline distance is approx. 1100 NM, so I figure 7-8 days at 7 knots. This is the portion we are most interested in having company for. From there we will head down the chain, arriving in Trinidad before the onset of the Christmas Winds and will likely spend most of the winter there. We will go to Venezuela long enough to get some cheap Diesel before returning, in May, to St. Augustine or JAX, via the Virgins, PR, the DR and the Bahamas. Despite the fact that we have a get-home engine, we think it's prudent to have a consort if possible. This is what we did in 1998 with the sailboat. Then, we had custom weather forecasting from Bob Rice and thus avoided the thrashing the 1500 fleet took from Mitch. We split that expense, and would like to do so again. We used Herb for Gulf Stream and intermediate waypoints and had a good, albeit slow, passage (13 days). Each was on his own unless needing a tow or in distress, and despite the fact that we were a hundred miles apart at times, we arrived in within minutes of each other. That's what we'd like to do again. If you have made a passage such as this before, have serious interest and can muster 2 additional experienced crew, please email me details off-list. Regards, John "Seahorse" "We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but sail we must, and not drift, nor lie too long at anchor." -Plagiarized from the works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and modified without his consent.