I’m not going to say we’re “Stuck” in Bermuda, because this is a beautiful place to be – but we are still here, waiting on a good weather window to make our way back north. St. George’s harbour has a very transient feeling: everyone here has arrived from somewhere in the Caribbean or Bahamas, and is preparing to head somewhere else, mostly the Azores, or the US East Coast. People come and go constantly depending on urgency and forecasts. We were quite excited to see S/V Florence come in – they have a successful YouTube channel and have recently completed a circumnavigation on their Oyster 37 – we are big fans and enjoyed chatting with them!

We had three days of strong wind and torrential rain during which we didn’t get off the boat much. Adding to the difficulty, our electric outboard has broken, while the big petrol (gasoline) outboard is buried at the bottom of a cockpit locker and would be a major effort to take out at this point. So right now we are limited to rowing our inflatable which is less than ideal, but we can’t come to too much harm as long as we confine our trips to days when the wind isn’t too strong!

On Thursday the weather improved and we were longing to get off the boat, so we took the bus to Hamilton and then a ferry over to the Royal Naval Dockyard to explore. The dockyard area is also where cruise ships come in, so many of the old buildings have been turned into tourist shops and restaurants; however it was pleasant to look around. Back in Hamilton, we explored a little more, particularly walking through some of the parks, and then caught the bus back to St George.

Today is Bermuda Day, a big holiday for the island! I can’t actually find anything in particular it commemorates, but apparently this is the first day of the year that the locals go swimming and also the first day when shorts are considered appropriate business attire. If it’s nice this afternoon maybe we will honor the tradition and go for a swim.

Currently the forecast is looking good for us to leave on Sunday, so we are once more preparing to make passage. Our plan is to head straight for Marblehead, going outside Cape Cod, and we hope to arrive some time on Thursday. We might get some rough conditions on Tuesday while we are in the Gulf Stream, but nothing too extreme. We look forward to seeing friends at home very soon!