Our chart plotter lays a continuous track of our travels. The track has been running since we bought the new plotter laptop in Hobart, Tasmania about thirty thousand miles and five years back down the track.

One thing I really notice is that for the first three of these five years we have laid but a single track wending westwards across the oceans. In contrast, since "tying the knot" on our circumnavigation in the Caribbean our track now looks more like a bowl of spaghetti that's been dropped on the floor such has been the extent of our revisiting old haunts time and time again. Back an' furrit as my brother would say.

This time about a week ago, we were planning to once again lay another track heading north, laying it alongside our previous years tracks, to spend the summer in New England with the family until........ we spotted Rockhopper Of London, a UK flagged, Ocean Cruising Club catamaran, down in Rock Sound, Bahamas.

We dinghied over to say hello and a couple of nights later, Carl and Jo, came onboard for sundowners.

Naturally, we got into the where you going and where have you been thing.

We told our tall tales of derring-do around the oceans and explained we now felt that other than my itch to do high latitudes we felt we'd done about as much as we wanted on the boat, especially as, post Brexit, the maximum 90 day rule in the Mediterranean ruled that out.

Oh no it doesn't the Rockhoppers said. We've been there for years. Here's how it works.........

About two in the morning, my head in a spin, I arranged a WhatsApp chat with Eric and Vandy, ex Scoots, who we'd met originally in the Pacific, and who we now knew were in the eastern Med. As USA citizens, they had similar 90 day challenges.

We talked for half an hour and their story was just like Rockhoppers. So, guess what ........... New England is binned and on Wednesday, we head for Bermuda, the Azores and the sunny Med making our fifth trans Atlantic.

Back and furrit!!

you can follow our progress, or lack thereof, on https://iphone.predictwind.com/tracking/display/TimeBandit/