We were having dinner below when, uh oh!, we heard an ominously loud pop. We bolted out the companionway just as the stern-mounted windvane began to bang against the floating pontoon. The bowline had parted from the buoy and Halekai was being pushed against the dock.

We started the engine and Burger untied the aft lines while I took the helm and held us off. Then we motored out of the marina and once again found ourselves anchoring in the dark.

Oh dear, we had just completed the to-do list and now there's a new item on it: fix the bent windvane. Without it working properly we don't want to cross the ocean. We wouldn't want to depend solely on the electric autopilot, since if it malfunctioned we'd have to hand steer--a very unpleasant prospect at best!