We shoved off at 4:00 pm today from Bermuda in route for the Azores. Victor had to return to a life of leisure so we picked up two new crew members - CR and Hal. Both are friends from Alameda and have a lot of sailing experience. We will miss Victor - he was great to have on the boat. Jamie was quick to assume Victor's bunk and claim the coveted "First Mate" glass.

We spent 5 days in Bermuda and really enjoyed the island. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club was a highlight - a true sailors/gentleman's club. They actually have washers and dryers so we were able to do all of our laundry. We visited two towns, St George and Hamilton. Bermuda is known for the "Bermuda Onion" and the "Dark and Stormy". Unfortunately this is a very bad year for onions so we had to make up the difference with the latter.

Our trip from the British Virgin Islands took a small toll on the boat, so we had a few boat projects to accomplish: After relacing the trampoline, cleaning out the bilges, adjusting the bilge pump float switches, servicing the compass and it's light, hooking up the chart plotter to the autopilot, changing the oil, changing the fuel filters, fixing the windlass, scrubbing down the boat, filling the water tanks and topping off the fuel tanks we were ready to go! Everything is very expensive in Bermuda for instance it costs $5 for a bell pepper and $6.50 for a gallon of diesel!

We have light winds now from the northwest - finally the winds are behind us! We had winds on the nose all the way to Bermuda. Unfortunately the winds are too light to sail so we are motoring. We can motor for 200 hours max so we have to be careful to save enough fuel for when we really need it. It is great having 4 crew members because we get 2 hours more sleep - we are doing 2 hours on and 6 hours off. The temperature is 72 and dropping...brrr.