We have been in Bermuda for about 2 weeks now and are really getting antsy to start sailing home. Nobody has much sympathy for us though, stuck in Bermuda ... how bad can it be? Actually, it is pretty wonderful and we will be back. We are just feeling the lure of the grandbaby (see her picture in the Photo Album), and it will be good to be back in home waters.
Our trip from Newport to Bermuda was fast - only four and a half days - but very wet and we had a few repairs to make and a lot of drying out to do once we got in. Our new toy, the chart plotter, allowed us to enter at night by showing where the navigational markers we wanted were in relationship to Independence ... Amazing and I don't know how we managed this long without it. Probably would have stood outside off the island until dawn, it was very rough so it would have been a very long night. We did have company on our trip: a woman single-handing a 43 foot Swan left with us. It was nice to have someone to compare notes with on the radio. She has deck leaks, so was even wetter than we were.
Along withdrying out and fixing hatches, our refrigeration quit. We carry lots of ice so no food went bad, but at $9 a bag ice is an expensive solution in Bermuda. Pieter diagnosed the problem as a bad bearing in the clutch and our good friends at Bermuda Yacht Services (see dragging incident in an earlier log!!) came to the rescue by ordering the part and giving us a discount on ice!
It took a while but the part finally came: the right part the first time too! It went in with a minimum of fuss and is now working like a charm. We have been doing some maintenance chores as well, the varnish is looking very shiny, the stainless is all polished, the oil and filters are changed and lots of other little chores have been crossed off the list. The hatches have been re gasketed and better not leak; all the Christmas goodies are stowed in the focsle!
This trip hasn't been all work. We ferried up to the old Dockyard and in to Hamilton for some shopping and exploring. One of the other jobs to be done was replacing our red and green navigation lights and they actually had the same ones at the chandlery. Also got parts for the Aries windvane; we are leaving Bermuda in very good shape. We connected with several old friends from past visits and have had a very pleasant social schedule. Boats come and go, most from the northeast and heading to the Caribbean so there is always someone to meet and talk with about the next passage. Just now it is all about weather, some boats have left and are having fast but rough trips, the tropical system by Puerto Rico is causing us to hesitate a bit but the consensus seems to be that tomorrow - the 27 of October - is our day. One more weather guru to listen to on the single side band, the much-loved Herb from Southbound 11, will give his opinion tonight, so keep your fingers crossed for us! It is about 850 miles and we hope to be home in about a week and I promise an update once we are in and reconnected. Independence is gleaming and will be ready and available for full-day and half-day charters after the 15th of November so come on down to St.Thomas and lets go sailing!
We'll see you soon! - Pieter and Pat
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