We're back in the BVI and restarted the clock; we are now good to go for another thirty days.

We came back on the eigth to have our autopilot looked at and for more enclosure fittings. The problem with the autopilot turned out to be quite simple, corrosion in the electrical feed to the clutch. I also discovered the previous owner had installed the feed to the motor using what looked like speaker wire. The motor may draw more that ten amps and the thin wire running over twenty feet though the bilge would cause considerable voltage drop.

So the solution was easy, buy properly sized wire and pull it though the bilge. Sounds easy but any boat owners out there will understand what it means to pull wire through the boat. As with most of our projects it took several hours; I made sure all the connections we water tight and fired up the device, and.......it worked. We left Road Reef Marina where we go for our enclosure fittings and sailed to Benures Bay on autopilot. Such a sweat thing when everhting is working.

I uploaded some pictures of the enclosure fitting and the guys from Doyle sailmakers. They are real pros, very service oriented and very pleasant to be with. The bimini is done, the dodger is done and we've been through the fitting for the side panels, and the rear mesh panel. This will be BEAUUUTIFUL when it's done. Having this would have made the trip from Hampton a joy ride. No need for foul weather gear except to go on deck.

Benures Bay is on the north side of Norman Island almost directly across from Road Town and since the wind is pretty steady from the east at 18 - 20 it's a reach over and back. Alice and hope we can visit here when the family comes later this month. Pelican's diving, Brown Boobys diving, turtles surfacing, fishing jumping 20 or more feet into the air. We sit with cocktail in hand and watch the show. It's a beautiful bay, a little off the charter fleet's list of places to anchor, they mostly like picking up moorings, anchoring is like work.

So today we'll work on projects this morning, go snorkeling, maybe dinghy over to the Bight for entertainment and then later this afternoon we'll watch Mother Nature's show, rum and tonic in hand of course. BTW, rum is pretty cheap down here, less that an equal sized container of organge juice which sells from $7.00 to $10.00 yikes.