We are anchored back in St. George’s. As soon as we passed the last channel marker, Otto gave up. We took it apart, thought about continuing on without it, and finally made the decision to turn around and get it fixed. Two people hand steering for 7 days would be dangerous.

We checked back in with customs and made an appointment for Monday morning with the Raymarine dealer. Looks like we will be here for Christmas after all.

We are bummed – it was great out there and it FELT great to be out there. But we are proud of our decision to turn around. We’ll keep our chins up and get our autopilot up and running so that we can take advantage of our next weather window…which is hopefully just around the corner.

Twas the night before Friday on ol’ Stella Blue,
Some wine in the cockpit and a carol or two.

The stockings were hung from the portholes with care,
Christmas treats with the Thatchers we were going to share.

When what to our disbelieving eyes did we see,
A note from Chris Parker, to Logan and me.

It’s time to head south, if you can be ready.
The winds should be calm and the seas should be steady.

So back to St. George’s we sailed in a flash,
To run a few errands and make our mad dash!

The tanks are topped off and the engine’s a-go,
But most importantly, Logan and I feel ready to go.

So off into the Atlantic we’ll sail away,
Later Bermuda! Virgin Gorda, we’re on our way!!!

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Good question. We have been hanging around Bermuda for just about one month now. It took a good two weeks for us to even start thinking about getting back out onto the open seas and now that we feel ready, we are waiting for damn near perfect weather.

So, what ARE we waiting for?

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Holidays are tough without your family. Holidays are tough when the wind is blowing and blowing and blowing. Holidays are tough without pie! This was our first Thanksgiving as married people and I was planning to prepare a lovely canned ham with sides of boxed potatoes and canned peas! Enter Jimmy – who called and saved us from not just one, but all three of our holiday afflictions.

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Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…..

That’s the sound the macerator pump makes as it relieves our holding tank of its contents. Last night it continued on for much longer than usual. So we flipped off the switch and then noticed in horror as the TankWatch reported the holding tank was still at capacity. Oh, shit. Not again. It’ll have to wait until the morning.

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Stella at anchor in St. George, Bermuda

Logan and I are always excited to sail up to a new island unknown to us, but neither one of us have EVER been more excited to see the glow of island lights off in the distance as we were on Sunday night. Bermuda was on the horizon and we were going to make it.

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We are going to cast off the dock lines here in Hampton in a few short hours – it will be a busy morning no doubt.

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Vicki says that we made it far enough north that the trees are changing colors and that’s TOO far north – and I completely agree. Before we got here, the idea of cooler temps and crisp fall air sounded exciting and exotic. That was before my toes and fingers went numb, my nose turned bright red, and my lips chapped. We woke up several mornings to temps in the 30s with stiff breezes blowing over the dodger. We wore almost every piece of warm clothing we have on board, but let’s just say that we have definitely added long underwear to our Hampton shopping list.

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Our second overnight passage was an uneventful one – just the way we like ’em. Our motor stayed on the whole time except for the quick downwind sunset cruise we took on the second evening. We just couldn’t stand the engine anymore, so we turned a few degrees to starboard, let out the sails and enjoyed the sound of silence to remind us why we love sailing so much. Unlike our last passage, we had a full moon keeping the ocean lit up all night. There is something incredibly…what’s the right adjective here…special, inspiring, mind widening, groovy… about watching the moon set as the sun rises with nothing but blue ocean on the horizon. We got to the Beaufort channel markers just as the sun was coming up and dropped anchor here in Taylor Creek.

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We are on our way north to meet our fellow Salty Dawgs! Our Spot should track our passage – we are headed to Beaufort, NC out in the Atlantic, then we will take the ICW up the rest of the way. Here we go again!!!