We are David and Claudia Shields and we spent the decade of the 1990s preparing our sailboat home, Ma’alahi, for a five-year cruise through the Caribbean.  We finally made the dream a reality on November 3, 1998, when we untied the dock lines in Kemah, Texas, for the last time and sailed down Galveston Bay for our planned Gulf of Mexico crossing to Isla Mujeras, Mexico and the Western Caribbean.  However, Hurricane Mitch had other ideas and decided to enter the Gulf of Mexico the same day. We promptly changed our plans and eventually ended up in Florida with a decision to cruise the Eastern Caribbean.  The photos from that first year of cruising are shared with the world on the Travels of Ma’alahi Slide Show pages. We returned to Florida in June, 2001, to visit family, make extensive improvements and repairs to Ma’alahi and go back to work (for awhile).  Not exactly five years but fun is more expensive in the Eastern Caribbean than in the west which is where we plan to go once we take off again after replenishing the cruising kitty.