Day 11 - Tuesday May 28
What an uncomfortable night it was, rolling like crazy! A freak wave tipped us over so water came gushing in through the sinks and pooring all over the galley - but who doesn’t want to start their morning with an intense aerobics class cleaning out the undrained bilge where we keep tins?
The irregular and unpredictable movement of the boat turns every step into an acrobatic act. Just carrying a cup of tea from the galley to the cockpit involves muscles I didn’t know I have. And remember, never carry two mugs, you always need one hand to hold and brace yourself!

I felt pretty miserable this morning - but then we had dolphins, dozens of them. There is no way to feel miserable when there’s dolphins.
It calmed down a bit during the day and we had mahimahi sashimi for lunch. In the evening we decided to try the eggs and bacon from the farmer’s market in Brunswicks. And WOW! Those of you who are still in Brunswick, make sure to find that sweet guy with the big smoker next Saturday! The best bacon I have ever had! (Mats claims fresh unsmoked bacon is better, but hey, try this!) The eggs, never refrigerated, were awesome too. Well, you can tell we don’t live quite a normal life when we get excited about things like this.

Day 12 - Wednesday May 29
I spent my night watches mainly in the pilot house this night as it was a bit raw and damp outside - and the cloudy sky hid the stars and the moon, nothing fun to look at. We had very little wind and used the engine for support. The autopilot did the steering - when we are not using the engine the wind wane comes in handy. The only times we are using the steering wheel manually is when entering or leaving a marina or anchorage - or if we quickly have to avoid disaster, like running into fishing nets, hitting another boat and other things that are hopefully detected before it happens. So, our duties during night watches are to keep track of of AIS targets (other boats that are transmitting their positions) and radar warnings, checking that we are on course and adjusting when needed, trimming the sails when needed and every now and then starring out into the night to look for objects that are not visible on AIS or radar. There is plenty of time for reading, writing, thinking complete thoughts, sipping tea ... I quite enjoy them when it’s not too crazy onboard - and I usually let Captain sleep longer than our minimum 2 hours per watch.

This morning we got off watches pretty early to prepare for our arrival in Bermuda. 30 nautical miles off the coast, we tried to call Bermuda Radio on vhf as advised but could not get a signal until we were at around 20NM. They gave us instructions about entering and wished us welcome.
What a beautiful morning! Sea calm enough - I could take a walk around deck to remove the flying fish that had landed during the night. Only a few. At times, we see hundreds of them flying gracefully over the waves.

Calling my Mom on our satellite connection was another highlight of the day, happy birthday Mamma!

Getting a sailboat prepared for docking is like changing the entire set beween scenes in a theatre. Friends who have seen us doing this actually called it “The ballet” as we are totally synched getting the sails down and tied up, fenders and ropes out and ourselves tidied up to be presentable in a customs office.

Checking into Bermuda was very enjoyable! We were greeted by Harrington Harvey III, a customs officer who seems to love his job and meeting new people. Lots of laughs - and he even performed a little happy dance when I asked about safety on the island. I think I’m going to love it here.

After leaving the customs dock, we anchored in the beautiful bay, got our dingy out and finally felt like fulltime cruisers again. We visited the only other Swedish boat in the bay and had a couple of fun hours with Kerstin and Paul, sharing horror stories from our cruises (and some lovely stories too) and then had a meal at the famous Whitehorse pub. Mats cannot recommend the fish&chips but my steamed mussels were good.

We managed to find our boat among dozens of others in the velvety darkness and slept a full night - which is the greatest luxury onboard. Day 13 is just starting and new adventures await.