The synopsis of our passage to the islands goes like this; running backstay fell off (reattached by Josh going up the mast), automatic transmission fluid leaking into cockpit (very slippery and continually cleaned by all of us, but most enthusiastically and frequently by Phil), loss of steering (sailed with emergency tillers aka "Wooly Mammoth tusks"), found Hurricane Kate (used sea anchor for 18 hours drifting only 5 miles and an incredible retrieval of the sea anchor by the crew), blowing out reef lines (yep, those new ones we just purchased), escape hatch opened (sea water contaminated our water supply and fuel), finished connecting our water maker to get us fresh water (Kevin you rock) and draining the water from our fuel tanks, popped-up rudder cassette (repositioned and secured by crew). Our passage was full of challenges. A huge thanks to Alec, Josh, Kevin, and Phil for being such AWESOME crew. Everyone jumped into action when any task needed handling. I cannot say enough great things about this group of guys. We arrived in St. Thomas on November, 16th. Thinking we were prepared to party and celebrate a passage completed, Josh and I went to bed, exhausted, at 8:30pm.