Our forced sojurn at Norton's was made a little more sad today as we cast off the lines for Jarrod as he heads South for the winter. He had cast off ours yesterday and then recaught them again!!! We had originally planned to meet in Block Island and leave for an outside trip down the coast as buddy boats. We're not sure if we will be able to get to Block in time for the next weather window.

Dwayne from Pawtuxet Marine Electronics came this morning as promised. He confirmed what we suspected and that is that our fluxgate compass is on the blink. Strangely enough it seemed to be working OK today but based on what we experienced yesterday it all points to the compass. This is good news as this will be a relatively easy (and cheap) fix. And as it turns out, something we could easily have done ourselves but just felt we didn't know enough about the function of the autopilot to be sure this was the problem. A new compass has been oredered and should arrive tomorrow. With any luck this will be installed tomorrow and we should be good to go. However, we daren't get our hopes up too much as I don't think we could stand the crushing disapointment of another let down. We have been sitting around today not sure what to do with ourselves. All the jobs are done, we have no means of land transport and yet... here we sit! It is even colder today than yesterday and we have worn double layers of fleece all day.

Will post the news tomorrow.