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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